"That's BARBARIC!" "That's Wizard's Chess!" Making my Harry Potter chess set

[Pete SSS]

First off, apologies for the ENORMOUS pics, I'm posting this from my phone and cant shrink them down!

I was lucky enough to get a set of great "Isle is Lewis" chess men for Christmas, just like the set that Harry and Ron play with in the Philosopher's (Scorcerer's) Stone.

But the thing I was missing was a suitable chessboard.

So I spent a while in photoshop, drawing up the fleu-de-lys borders around the squares, and then printed them out of a laser printer onto suitable paper.

I then used some gold laser transfer foil over the printed ink, then ran it through a laminator to seal the foil to the ink.

Once all the squares and borders were ready, I cut out a 20 x 20 inch square of 18mm ply, then drew up the grid and started gluing on the paper parts.

Next was to edge the board with some strips of pine

Next was to stain the back, then fit some vintage brass handles to use as feet.

A bit of black paint on the side strips, and a nice coat of wax over the whole thing, and she's nearly finished.

The only thing left to do is to find some suitable moulded beading to gold leaf and fix to the edges.

I haven't taken any photos of the board with the chess men in place yet, it's next on my list!

 

[Kerr Avon]

BEAUTIFUL work on the chessboard!!!! I keep meaning to buy a set of those chess figures but keep skipping it. Do you know where they were purchased from?

 

[oliversnape]

Sheesh that looks amazing. Brilliant job! How was the printed foil transfer? I've never done that before and I'm afraid I'll mess it up.

 

[Pete SSS]

BEAUTIFUL work on the chessboard!!!! I keep meaning to buy a set of those chess figures but keep skipping it. Do you know where they were purchased from?

Thanks! I got the Chessmen from a guy who casts the sets up in a polystone style resin. He's based here in England. I'll see if I can dig up his email for you. The casts did have a few bubbles, but they were tiny and just pushed off, I was very pleased with their quality.

 

[Kerr Avon]

Sure, love to get that. Do you have pics of the actual pieces you have?

 

[Pete SSS]

Sheesh that looks amazing. Brilliant job! How was the printed foil transfer? I've never done that before and I'm afraid I'll mess it up.

Thanks! Here's a link to the site where I got the transfer foil from.

Crafty Computer Paper

On that page is a little video advertising the foil, it shows you how to use it there.

Sure, love to get that. Do you have pics of the actual pieces you have?

I've managed to find an email address, I'll PM it to you.
Here are a few photos of my Chessmen on the board. They are not great shots, but will give you an idea of the quality. I'll take some proper photos of the set, once the board is totally finished. They really are nice pieces, they even have the soft, green felt on their bases.

One more thing I'd like to do to my board, is to make the white squares a little more creamy in colour, to closer match the colour of the white Chessmen. A bit of creative waxing should do the trick.

 

[Mole]

That looks amazing! Very impressive results from some simple materials.

 

[Yellowjacket]

Looks fantastic!

 

[Pete SSS]

That looks amazing! Very impressive results from some simple materials.

Looks fantastic!

Thanks guys. One of the reasons I really enjoyed this make was because it used such simple materials. Some times it's nice to get away from the fibreglass casting and the silicon moulding!

 

[TheNickFox]

That seriously looks great! I would have never guessed it's just paper on plywood!

This really makes me want to start playing chess again...it's been close to 8 years since I last played and I definitely never had a board that looked half as good as this.

Is there any risk of the paper delaminating from the wood with the glue you used, or is it fairly solid?

-Nick

 

[SmilingOtter]

Great work - the brass pull knobs for feet was inspired.

The pieces look to be really, REALLY close to the Lewis chessmen set, for what it's worth.

 

[AceD]

This looks really great. Nice work on the chessboard!
What does these chessmen cost?

 

[Pete SSS]

Is there any risk of the paper delaminating from the wood with the glue you used, or is it fairly solid?
-Nick

Thanks again. The paper is altogether bonded to the wood. As both the paper and the untreated timber are so absorbant, they really lock the glue in. I also used a nylon roller when fixing the paper down, to really apply a lot of pressure. The only thing that could interfere with it would be water, but the 3 coats of wax will protect it from any spillages.

Here's a close up shot of the waxed surface. You can see the grain of both the wood and the paper under the shine, to mimic a worn leather finish.

The pieces look to be really, REALLY close to the Lewis chessmen set, for what it's worth.

Yeah, I really am very pleased with them, cheers.

This looks really great. Nice work on the chessboard!
What does these chessmen cost?

I think they were about £25 - £30?

 

[ElliotStone]

This looks awesome, great build. I'm sure you'll get lots of enjoyment out of it.

 

[hopefulhp]

Love the chess set and the board is fabulous! Would you be willing to share where you got the chessmen?

 

[Risu]

That foil transfer stuff is cool! And your build looks excellent. It's too bad the foil only works on paper, I'd love to have something like that for gilding leather book covers.

 

[SofaKing01]

WOW! What attention to detail! Fantastic work.

 

[Pete SSS]

Love the chess set and the board is fabulous! Would you be willing to share where you got the chessmen?

Sure, I'll PM his email to you.

That foil transfer stuff is cool! And your build looks excellent. It's too bad the foil only works on paper, I'd love to have something like that for gilding leather book covers.

Thanks! Yeah, the foil is great stuff, I've just begun to tap its potential I think. It would be incredible to find a similar method for leather guiding. In theory, you can use an iron over the foil to melt the ink, instead of a laminator, so if you could get the laser toner onto the leather cleanly, you'd be half way there. Dunno, there are a lot of unknowns there.

WOW! What attention to detail! Fantastic work.

Thanks! The stage that took the most concentration was photoshopping the artwork for the printouts. It was nice and straight forward once that was done.

 

[Chewcy]

Fantastic, you should do a run ofthe chess board it looks great!

 

[narnia2012]

Yeees. You should do a run fo this. I would be one of the first ones to buy it. It's AMAZING!