To start, i dont like Harry Potter but i do love chess so when i learned that there was a chess set featured in the movie i wanted to try and replicate it for my collection. In searching for reference i found that a fellow RPF member Pete SSS built a fantastic board which i found a wonderful source of inspiration, his thread is located here:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=147539
So here are a couple of screen shots from the movie that i went from.
First off the pieces. They are Isle of Lewis chessmen, there are a number of places that you can get a good replica set, etsy from user "oggtheclever", or from ebay like i did from "winkingblindbats" which is of great quality. After i received the pieces i had to decide how big to make the squares and in turn how big the full board should be. These are large pieces and at first i used 2" squares but i felt like the pieces were too cramped so i went up to 2.25". I drew it out on paper in a few different sizes first before i started drawing in the computer. mock up below at 2.125" which i thought was still too small.
i have to thank @PeteSSS for his build and i have to admit that i redrew a pattern that he made for the boarder as i could not find any reference myself and i though his looked great. below are my drawings done in rhino3D ( a CAD program i use a lot at work for 3d modeling but is killer at 2d as well). boarder close up and final board with pieces separated so as to be printed on an 11x17 laser printer.
I wanted to find paper that would simulate leather so i picked up some "silktouch nuba" by skivertex at FLAX art supply. this stuff is awesome, its kind of soft and has a nice tight grain print. its not too expensive, about $5 for a 17x36 sheet, i got black and cream color. I cut the paper down to 11x17 so i could run it through the laser printer at work. It needs to be printed with toner so that the gold foil will react and stick. I used "minc" heat reactive foil and the cheapest laminator i could find on amazon, i think it was $15.
you take a sheet of the foil and tape it to the leather paper then i ran it through the laminator twice. then i peel off the foil sheet and the foil sticks to only the toner that was printed on the paper, its pretty amazing and worked perfectly.
next i cut out all of the boarders and squares which was extremely tedious trying to cut them perfectly. below is an image of a mock up before anything was glued down, i was starting to get really excited at this point. the only bummer is that the largest i could print was 11x17 so i had to split the boarders into two pieces, definitely not ideal as matching would be difficult later.
to be continued...
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=147539
So here are a couple of screen shots from the movie that i went from.
First off the pieces. They are Isle of Lewis chessmen, there are a number of places that you can get a good replica set, etsy from user "oggtheclever", or from ebay like i did from "winkingblindbats" which is of great quality. After i received the pieces i had to decide how big to make the squares and in turn how big the full board should be. These are large pieces and at first i used 2" squares but i felt like the pieces were too cramped so i went up to 2.25". I drew it out on paper in a few different sizes first before i started drawing in the computer. mock up below at 2.125" which i thought was still too small.
i have to thank @PeteSSS for his build and i have to admit that i redrew a pattern that he made for the boarder as i could not find any reference myself and i though his looked great. below are my drawings done in rhino3D ( a CAD program i use a lot at work for 3d modeling but is killer at 2d as well). boarder close up and final board with pieces separated so as to be printed on an 11x17 laser printer.
I wanted to find paper that would simulate leather so i picked up some "silktouch nuba" by skivertex at FLAX art supply. this stuff is awesome, its kind of soft and has a nice tight grain print. its not too expensive, about $5 for a 17x36 sheet, i got black and cream color. I cut the paper down to 11x17 so i could run it through the laser printer at work. It needs to be printed with toner so that the gold foil will react and stick. I used "minc" heat reactive foil and the cheapest laminator i could find on amazon, i think it was $15.
you take a sheet of the foil and tape it to the leather paper then i ran it through the laminator twice. then i peel off the foil sheet and the foil sticks to only the toner that was printed on the paper, its pretty amazing and worked perfectly.
next i cut out all of the boarders and squares which was extremely tedious trying to cut them perfectly. below is an image of a mock up before anything was glued down, i was starting to get really excited at this point. the only bummer is that the largest i could print was 11x17 so i had to split the boarders into two pieces, definitely not ideal as matching would be difficult later.
to be continued...
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