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Dementors Attack the Hogwarts Express It is a little known aspect of the Second Great Wizarding War that the Order of the Phoenix occasionally used the Hogwarts Express as a means of secret communication. When required, a brave squib engineer - Cornelius Melchett - would take the locomotive, unencumbered by rolling stock, at high-speed to points all over the country conveying secret messages and items of great importance. Since he was a squib, he was not closely monitored by the Ministry of Magic and as the locomotive ran completely on muggle principles, it left no traceable magical signature. Eventually however, Cornelius's luck ran out. One evening on Ravenscar Moor he was ambushed by a patrol of no fewer than nine dementors. Although he tried to escape at speed, resistance was futile. The attack was brief and vicious, and alas, Cornelius lost his life. Today a small plaque on the footplate of the Hogwarts Express commemorates his bravery and sacrifice. It's almost two years ago since my 12 year old daughter (now 14) came to me stating that she wanted to scratchbuild the Hogwarts Express. We started in July 2019 and 'Baby Bandsaw' (sometimes her mum calls her 'Caroline') did most of the work herself, although I helped out here and there. The locomotive is mostly made of wood and brass with the wheels 3D printed by Neil; a good friend of mine without whose assistance this could not have been done. I could not be prouder of what my daughter has achieved here and must say that the final standard is far above what I thought possible when we started. Here's the story of how this model / diorama was made. I would like to thank everyone in the Britmodeller Community who offered advice, interest, encouragement or just old fashioned banter. There have been one or two stalwarts on this project who have contributed at every step of the way. To you lot - and you know who you are - I offer very special thanks indeed. Best Wishes to you all, Bandsaw Steve and Baby Bandsaw

Hogwart's Express - A Baby Bandsaw Build 'A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the ticket box had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it. He had done it' So wrote J.K. Rowling in chapter six of her 1997 novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - the first in a series of novels that some of you may have heard of. My two daughters have definitely heard of these books - and have seen the films countless times - in fact they are bordering on fanatical about all things Harry Potter. So it wasn't a complete surprise when the younger of them - twelve year old 'Baby Bandsaw'- came to me about two weeks ago and asked if she could have a go at scratch-building a model of the Hogwarts Express. Being a very irresponsible parent I immediately decided that this was a great idea and despite all of the hazards of power-tools and chisels and so-forth, Baby Bandsaw (B,B) should indeed have a crack at this! We agreed that I would give her inexpert guidance, bad advice and, whenever required, inept help. She however would actually do the majority of the work. This will be Baby Bandsaw's Build, not mine, but she agreed that I was allowed to photograph and document her progress right here on Britmodeller and that I would be allowed to publish under my log-on. I looked her straight in the eye and asked her 'if you start this will you finish it?' it was a somber moment - she said 'yes' so we shook hands and the project began. After a brief bit of research and a couple of internet searchs I found this set of plans for a 'Hall Class' locomotive (Olton Hall was used in the film) and re-scaled the plans to 1/48 scale using my work's photocopier. This should be enough to get started. In model railway world I think that 1/48 is called 'O' gauge for some obscure reason. This lump of Huon Pine - the same bit I used to form the vac-form cowling buck on the Avro 504 - was the only bit of decent wood I had that was wide enough to start to form the boiler . Here is the first cut in the entire project. BB cutting off a small surplus lump on one end, squaring up the block in preparation for further work. Here she's cutting out the profile view of the boiler. We have no plan view at this stage but that's not too much of a handicap because the boiler is circular in cross-section and so the side view is identical to the plan. As per my usual 'modus operandi' BB is spraying some cheap photo-fixative glue onto the side of the wood so that... She can stick the paper pattern on and start some bandsaw action! I was sort-of a bit 'parental' here and fussed about making sure those fingers stayed at least a small distance from the blade! A few minutes later she had this. We marked up a 'do not cut into' red line -as you can see below - and a grey 'remove with chisel' area and BB started hacking into the sharp squared off corners with this scoop chisel - nice work! So after about half an hour she was left with this. The very, very early stages of this build. The very first bit of rounding off of that square block that will need be reduced to a full cylinder to represent the boiler. Alas, by now it was bedtime as BB had school the following day. So begins my first post on the 'Civilian Vehicle's forum - a forum I have been hankering to get onto for some time. Some of you may be thinking 'Ere! Isn't there a forum specifically for railway locomotives on Britmodeller?' and there is. However, frankly, it's a bit hidden away and BB and I are hoping for a bit of visibility, interest and banter regarding this project. We think it will do better here in that regard. I did send a Personal Message to @Mike and he has very graciously given us permission to post this here so we aren't trespassing - honest! 🙂 Anyway - this should be fun, and I hope some of you see fit to follow along and see what comes of this. Best Regards, Baby Bandsaw and Bandsaw Steve!

I thought I would start her with my first post, a rather challenging conversion of Revell's 1:24 London Bus into the Knight Bus from the Harry Potter film the Prisoner of Azkaban. following some fairly in-depth research I decided that a conversion using two kits should be possible, along the way some conversion would also be necessary to change the bus from an AEC Routmaster RML to the older AEC Regent III on which the bus in the film is based ( the book illustrations do show a Triple-Decker Routmaster, but I wanted this to be a copy of the bus seen in the film Work will include shortening the body by removing the 'central bay' to make a standard wheelbase Routemaster Modifying the top deck especially the front and rear sections to accept the new top floor Fitting out the interior with chandelier and berths for sleeping wizards Thanks for watching, any help and advice gratefully received Jim