Harry Potter -- Quidditch Brooms -- WIP's

Iycis, having built my own Nimbus 2001 (look at my flickr, crappy cell pics are there) I can tell you that anyone can do it. My own advice if you do do it though: laminate your handle, don't try to glue things together longways. It just doesn't work out. Then for your tail, use a mop head, and fiberglass resin. Get enough resin on there a bit of sanding, and some hi build primer, and it'll pass all tests. Exciting stuff!

For your slytherin uniform, which version are you going for? I wanted to do the Half Blood Prince variation, but could only find the right fabric in the UK. So doing Bulgaria instead :p


@Tonka, I approve your methods sir. My friends get annoyed with it at times, but I love knowing I have everything down to the last detail. So we're on the same page there!
Your raid on Hobby Lobby was a good idea. Especially with coupons! My sister works at a craft store so I get to borrow her friends n family discount. But I'll essentially be doing the same. Only for mine I'm thinking of doing something a little sturdier. I agree that the rubber brush of the Noble's is crap. But to stay a little true to the Firebolt, might I suggest a collection of thinner (1/8"ish) metal rods? So that you don't just have one long metal rod sticking out all awkward like?

Again, forgive me if I intrude, I am sure you have spent as much time as I thinking these things up and I do not mean to step on your plans. Feel free to ignore them as you will :)

It makes me happy to see other folks who are as into this as I am! If there is any way at all I can provide any services, let me know. I'd offer a portfolio but I don't have one. But I do have decent wood working skills and abilities. Let me know if I can help any!

Thanks for putting up with me as usual!

i
 
But to stay a little true to the Firebolt, might I suggest a collection of thinner (1/8"ish) metal rods? So that you don't just have one long metal rod sticking out all awkward like?

Good suggestion, but let me explain what I'll do so that it makes a little more sense. A commonality in all HP brooms is that the longest broom bristles are in the dead center of the tail (from a rear view) with the bristles either shortening as you move outward, or in the case of brooms like the firebolt, you have more "flyaways". This mean that if I do a single rod down the center of the tail, it will not only be more than adequate for supporting the weight without breaking bristles, but then I can cut the bristles directly touching the rod to within 1mm or so of the end of the rod. This will completely hide the rod which will be painted to match the bristles, without having the rod sticking an inch or two out the back making it visable. It should really only be visable from a direct rear view, and even then only if you're really looking for it.

If I do multiple smaller rods, I then run into the fact that not only will it not really be any more structurally sound, but then I will have to have them all be exactly the same length. If they are not, then only the longest ones will be supporting weight, which defeats the purpose of having multiple supports in the first place, and will make them much harder to hide.

It makes me happy to see other folks who are as into this as I am! If there is any way at all I can provide any services, let me know. I'd offer a portfolio but I don't have one. But I do have decent wood working skills and abilities. Let me know if I can help any!

I'd definately like to collaborate with you on a project in the future, but as a former carpenter I'm pretty set on woodworking. I'm the type of person though who likes to continually learn new skill sets, so I tend to only buy pieces if it's just waaaay out of my league or if it's too cost prohibitive for me to make just one. Perfect example are the quidditch sweaters and house scarves. I learned to knit just so that I could make them, and I did make a few scarves for practice. But once I realized the time involved in hand knitting my own sweater, I discovered the price difference would be the equivalent of paying myself 15 cents an hour to do it. I could get a few other complete costumes done for the time it would have taken me to knit just that one sweater, plus I just don't particularly enjoy knitting.
 
Now Natasha, I'm sure between you and dustin you could do it. I'd be willing to help you do any research or explain any methods for getting it done. Having held all three reproductions, I gotta say the 2001 is my favorite.

Lol...the more I read, the less I want to try to make this. :lol:lol:lol You guys are too good!
 
Curious, are you /just/ basing these off the movies? Ron is said to be extremely tall, and his though still poor, he got a new brook pre HBP. While it's definitely not a firebolt, it is a new cleansweep rather than a shabby hand-me-down.

Aside from a few book canon things like that, they already look good in their beginning stages :) If I had ze money, I'd definitely want one.
 
Yes, these are based just off of the movies. I've read through the series several times and love the books, but there are always numerous inconsistancies between books and their movie adaptations, so I am sticking with one resource, the movies. The problem with creating props/costumes from books is that each individual reader may see something different in their head. With a movie, there's a visual to go from.

**More progress pics later tonight to show the weekend's work!
 
Alright, alright! I'll get them up in the nest couple of days. My school district has been doing it's EOG testing this week, so I haven't had much computer time at work.

All of the bristles got put on and painted today (took about 3 weekends to glue), so all I need to do is put the wire on, paint the wire, and attach the pedals and I'll be 100% done and moving on to the next two brooms. What I didn't anticipate about the 2000 is the amount of time it eats up gluing on individual bristles because they have to sit in a precise place and keep the "football" shape, which means gluing them at both ends.
 
So here's the long awaited update.........

Made a template of a side view of a Nimbus out of cardboard, and cut it out of a 2 x 12. Then came the long task of rounding it out to the correct shape with an orbital sander. Once I was happy with the shape, I drilled a hole in one end and glued in a dowel rod for support and weight bearing when stood on end.
 
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Next was to stain it brown, add the egg shaped form to give the football shape to the bristles, and to use a gold leaf marker to put the Nimbus 2000 logo on both sides.

If I had to do it over, I'd go with a lighter stain. It came out darker than the picture on the can.
 
Next was to glue on the bristles. They have a redish tint, so they will be painted brown afterwards. This was absolutely the most time consuming part of the entire project, welding included. Each bristle was glued on individually and at BOTH ENDS to ensure they retained the egg/football shape. The last pic is after the first layer was done.
 
And here it is 3 bags of bristles and 4 layers later. This process took a few looong weekends.

The brackets were added by first placing a band of metal around that I got when I used to make interior lights for cars during college. Its the metal that conducts heat and electricity. This worked great for glueing, because it caused the glue to harder much quicker as it pulled all of the heat out of it almost immediately. I glued the wire as one continuous piece for each bracket, then masked and painted gold. I finished it with a matte clear coat to give it more of a bronze look.

The last pick is how i mounted the legs. The screws were glued in prior to attaching the bracket with a gap being left between the bracket and the legs. This let me run the wire inbetween so it could stay in one piece.
 
And here's the final result of the first broom! Excited about how it turned out, sad that it will be going to someone else's home, but glad it's going to a friend. Will post pics of her with it in Quidditch gear when I give it to her!

Starting on Ron's and Ginny's brooms this weekend. Hopefully it will go alot faster since I won't have to glue one at a time or in a very specific pattern/shape.
 
That looks really great. Love the metal work. How about a display using a question mark shaped bit of springly steel attached to a base and a discreet mount point on the broom at the balance point? It would look like it was hovering.
 
Holy...****. This is the most spectacular thing I've ever seen!!!! Bravo, man. This is nothing short of an artistic masterpiece. I... I need this in my life.
 
SO AWESOME!!!! I'm seriously jealous. Loved seeing all the steps too. Well done!

Thanks Natasha, I'm ready to start seeing you make a 2001 now!

That looks really great. Love the metal work. How about a display using a question mark shaped bit of springly steel attached to a base and a discreet mount point on the broom at the balance point? It would look like it was hovering.

Definately someday when I get a chance to make a few brooms for myself (I plan on eventually having a 2000, 2001, and Firebolt for myself) but right now these first three I'm trading to members of my Quidditch costume group for other costume pieces that I or my wife need. I could also use thin ishing line to hange them from the ceiling.


Holy...****. This is the most spectacular thing I've ever seen!!!! Bravo, man. This is nothing short of an artistic masterpiece. I... I need this in my life.

Excellent job all around! :)

Thanks for the feedback! Other than the welding, this is definately a project anyone can do. Try either making the legs out of something else, or make one without them. In the scene where the Nimbus is first delivered to Harry, it dosen't have legs on it at all. I'm assuming this was to make it easier to wrap in paper and so that it could lay flat on it's side on the Great Room table for the overhead/side angle shot of it.
 
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