Star Wars chess set - MOC

[Grolim]

So I've decided to build my own Lego Star Wars chess set after being inspired by a few different versions I've seen online.  I want a neat way to display my SW minifig collection and to expand into some of the figs I don't have.

 

A few Bricklink orders have been placed and I've sorted out most of my piece selections.  just thought I'd canvass the community on ones where I'm a little undecided.  So vote away!

Question 1 - Rebel pawns - Hoth trooper vs Rebel pilots

 

Q2 - And all 8 exactly the same or have variants?  

Q3 - Imperial/Dark Side rooks - Wampa & Rancor vs Grievous & Droideka

My board is going to have a 5x5 stud per square footprint, so not sure how well the maxi figs will fit.

 

I'll share the progress of my build here for anyone interested in following along.  It will be a fairly slow process given the shipping time to me here.

[weakside]

Good luck on the project Grolin!  Couple of yrs ago when I started this Lego hobby I wanted to do the same using those polybag chrome Silver CP-03s as pawns since I had enough...but unfortunately slowly sold them off one by one.  Mandalorian troops were easy/cheap to get also.  I'm not a hardcore SW fan but obviously there's so many variations of chess pieces/characters you can chose from.  Queen Amidala?  If you had the funds/time, would be cool to do a custom chess board from each episode     

[Quacs]

I think you could do any number of variations based on settings from the movie - Hoth chess, Tatooine chess, Endor Chess, Death Star chess, etc.  The first should probably be an Ep. 4 Death Star set, so the Rebel Pilots would make for great pawns, with Luke and (smooth hair!) Leia, as King and Queen, Han as bishop, R2 as the knight and 3P0 as the rook.  On the other side, Vader would have to be King, with his officers his bishops, mouse droid his Knights (okay, maybe a little small - perhaps another droid with a little screen time?).  Don't have any idea about Empire Rooks or the queen off the top of my head.  Storm troopers would have to be the pawns.

 

Anyone with ideas for Empire rooks and Queen (or other changes) for an Ep. 4 Death Star chess set?  Wondering if Obi-Wan needs to somehow be in here too.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Quacs

[Locutus001]

Sounds like a nice project... I'm suprised though that you ask for opinions like "And all 8 exactly the same or have variants?"

If it's for you... you should know what you like more...

 

If you don't intend to use the pilots as something else than pawns (maybe together with the microfighter?) you could also mix hoth rebles with pilots, their is no harm in having different pawns. Also personally I think I would prefer variants, as it is more interesting (and give every figure something unique).

 

With the rooks I'd stay in theme.. I'm not sure though if the Wampa is a good choice since it's actually neutral. Again my personal favorite would probably be a microfighter (AT-AT maybe).

[Darth_Raichu]

I think you could do any number of variations based on settings from the movie - Hoth chess, Tatooine chess, Endor Chess, Death Star chess, etc.  The first should probably be an Ep. 4 Death Star set, so the Rebel Pilots would make for great pawns, with Luke and (smooth hair!) Leia, as King and Queen, Han as bishop, R2 as the knight and 3P0 as the rook.  On the other side, Vader would have to be King, with his officers his bishops, mouse droid his Knights (okay, maybe a little small - perhaps another droid with a little screen time?).  Don't have any idea about Empire Rooks or the queen off the top of my head.  Storm troopers would have to be the pawns.

 

Anyone with ideas for Empire rooks and Queen (or other changes) for an Ep. 4 Death Star chess set?  Wondering if Obi-Wan needs to somehow be in here too.

​For Ep 4, shouldn't Vader be Queen and either Tarkin or Emperor be the King ?  Vader's TIE wingmen could be the Rooks, Yularan / Motti be Bishops, and other DS officers be Knights

On white (I assumed) side, Han AND Obi Wan should be Bishops

[Quacs]

The reason I hesitated on Palpatine was that I couldnt remember if he was even in Ep. 4.  If he is, I would back that choice.  If not, Tarkin is def the choice.

Obi Wan is perfect as W bishop 2 - forgot that one.

 

Edited June 1, 2015 by Quacs

[Darth_Raichu]

I forgot Chewie for W

I think I saw this similar setup somewhere before:

white:
King: Luke & Leia (jumping over platforms)
Queen: Obi Wan
Bishop1: Han
Bishop2: Chewie
Knight 1&2: Wedge & Porkin
Rook 1&2: R2 & 3CP-O
Pawns: rebel troops

Black:
K: Emperor on throne
Q: Vader
B 1&2: Tarkin & Motti
Kn 1&2: DS Officers
R 1&2: TIE pilots
Pawns: Stormtroopers

[Grolim]

Thanks for the feedback so far people.

I was thinking of doing a strict Ep 5 theme or similar, or even multiple sets like Quacs mentioned.  but I've settled on a ep 1-6 range and using the best characters across all 6 movies.  I'm going to stick to characters/droids/minifigs, so mini build vehicles like AT-AT are out.

Here's what I have so far as my piece line up:

White/Rebels/Good guys:

• King: Luke
• Queen: Leia
• Bishops: Chewie & Han
• Knights: Yoda & Obi-Wan (I like the idea they are Jedi "Knights")
• Rooks: C-3PO & R2D2
• Pawns: - undecided

Black/Empire/Bad guys

• King: Emperor Palpatine
• Queen: Vader
• Bishops: Boba Fett & Royal Guard (was thinking maybe Jango Fett but love those silent red guards)
• Knights: Darth Maul & Count Dooku (again to balance the "Knight' concept)
• Rooks: undecided
• Pawns: Stormtroopers

My board will be 40 x 40 studs in total and here's a design mock-up:

 

 

5x5 studs per square.  Centre has a 1x1 plate with stud for attaching pieces as they move.

with 40x40 dimensions I'll then be able to put the whole thing onto a 48x48 baseplate and eventually I'd like to do some detailing around the outside.

 

 

[Grolim]

Good luck on the project Grolin!  Couple of yrs ago when I started this Lego hobby I wanted to do the same using those polybag chrome Silver CP-03s as pawns since I had enough...but unfortunately slowly sold them off one by one.  Mandalorian troops were easy/cheap to get also.  I'm not a hardcore SW fan but obviously there's so many variations of chess pieces/characters you can chose from.  Queen Amidala?  If you had the funds/time, would be cool to do a custom chess board from each episode     

Thanks Weakside.  yeah funds are not unlimited unfortunately.  I'd love to have a chrome Vader and a cloud City Fett or Even a UCS Slave I Fett, but the cost is too much for me.  I'll be going for figs I already have or that I think represent the characters best within budget.​

 

Sounds like a nice project... I'm suprised though that you ask for opinions like "And all 8 exactly the same or have variants?"

If it's for you... you should know what you like more...

I have a slight preference, but thought it might provide some interesting discussion here.  One of the main reasons I thought of individual variants is that Rebel troops are individual people not clones like Stormtroopers, so even thought of mixing pilots and troopers.  But that goes against chess tradition​ of pawns being identical.  Looks like the early votes have a clear lean though

 

I think you could do any number of variations based on settings from the movie - Hoth chess, Tatooine chess, Endor Chess, Death Star chess, etc.  The first should probably be an Ep. 4 Death Star set, so the Rebel Pilots would make for great pawns, with Luke and (smooth hair!) Leia, as King and Queen, Han as bishop, R2 as the knight and 3P0 as the rook.  On the other side, Vader would have to be King, with his officers his bishops, mouse droid his Knights (okay, maybe a little small - perhaps another droid with a little screen time?).  Don't have any idea about Empire Rooks or the queen off the top of my head.  Storm troopers would have to be the pawns.

 

Anyone with ideas for Empire rooks and Queen (or other changes) for an Ep. 4 Death Star chess set?  Wondering if Obi-Wan needs to somehow be in here too.

​How about the Dianoga Trash monster and the Interrogation Droid as rooks?

[MartinP]

This seems like a very interesting project. I would definitely want to see it complete!

[weakside]

So your board will be mainly smooth tiles except for the center of each colour?  Maybe I am missing something but if you use the single stud in the exact middle to stand a minifig...wouldn't they appear leaning/close to one side?  Would be nice to have two studs in the middle to fit majority of minifigs perfectly at center of colour.   Some figs have different bases obviously.   

Yeah, a totally smooth surface would look better but a studded board would be more practical.   Only have one copy of the Kingdom chess set (most recent)...love to open that day. 

I have enough SW troops...maybe I will do a chess board too   

[scuttfarkas]

Very cool idea.  Trilogy sets would be awesome.  Episode sets would be even better.  I'd go with the Rebel Pilots as the pawns.  While Hoth Rebel Soliders are cool....they were only on screen for about 1/2 hour of the whole trilogy, they got their butts kicked (Pilots are 2 for 2 against Death Stars) and the Pilots are varied enough yet similar enough to use different pilots as the pawns (Porkins, Dutch, Wedge etc,).

 

 

[snot]

Here's my suggestion for an Ep1-6 chess set. 

White

Pawns: x wing pilots

Rooks: R2 and C3p0

Knights: Chewie (queen side), Han (king side) - the space knights in shining armor (falcon)

Bishops: Yoda (queen side), Leia (king side)

Queen: Obi wan

King: Luke (white outfit)

 

Black

Pawns: storm troopers

Rooks: imperial Death Star gunner

Knights: darth maul and boba fett

Bishops: royal guards

Queen: vader

king: emperor

 

reasoning:  knights usually end up near each other in the center of the board hence Han and chewie on the white side.  On the black, Maul and Boba are natural jumpers.  Yoda and Leia as bishops because they can hide and strike via fianchetto, and the royal guards cause they look so cool. 

Obi Wan as queen because that will be a memorable loss and will probably only be killed by the black queen, Vader.  

Rooks of R2 and 3po because usually Rooks line up in file and I suspect the r2 rook to be played as a favorite check mating piece to save the day.  Imperial Death Star gunners as rooks to fire that straight devastating end game shot across the board. 

Edited June 2, 2015 by snot

[justapilgrim]

How about entire fett army?

Cheap jangos from a recent set for pawns, 2x other boba fett for knights, rooks, etc

Could go with cloud city for king and a white one for queen, could even be the cheaper white one from recent encyclopedia 

[Quacs]

Thanks for the feedback so far people.

I was thinking of doing a strict Ep 5 theme or similar, or even multiple sets like Quacs mentioned.  but I've settled on a ep 1-6 range and using the best characters across all 6 movies.  I'm going to stick to characters/droids/minifigs, so mini build vehicles like AT-AT are out.

Here's what I have so far as my piece line up:

White/Rebels/Good guys:

• King: Luke
• Queen: Leia
• Bishops: Chewie & Han
• Knights: Yoda & Obi-Wan (I like the idea they are Jedi "Knights")
• Rooks: C-3PO & R2D2
• Pawns: - undecided

Black/Empire/Bad guys

• King: Emperor Palpatine
• Queen: Vader
• Bishops: Boba Fett & Royal Guard (was thinking maybe Jango Fett but love those silent red guards)
• Knights: Darth Maul & Count Dooku (again to balance the "Knight' concept)
• Rooks: undecided
• Pawns: Stormtroopers

 

​I think having two Royal Guard bishops flanking Vader and Palpatine would be very fitting.  If it were me, I think I would save the Fetts for a different SW chess set, although you could make them your rooks too.  

 

​How about the Dianoga Trash monster and the Interrogation Droid as rooks?

​That's the ticket...

 

[Grolim]

So your board will be mainly smooth tiles except for the center of each colour?  Maybe I am missing something but if you use the single stud in the exact middle to stand a minifig...wouldn't they appear leaning/close to one side?  Would be nice to have two studs in the middle to fit majority of minifigs perfectly at center of colour.   Some figs have different bases obviously.   

Yeah, a totally smooth surface would look better but a studded board would be more practical.   Only have one copy of the Kingdom chess set (most recent)...love to open that day. 

I have enough SW troops...maybe I will do a chess board too   

You've hit on something I've also been thinking about.  The one stud in the center will mean that figs will be slightly off centre an it is bugging me a little​, my OCD might not like it  

I really wanted a smooth tiled look to the board but also wanted a way to anchor the pieces to the square as they moved.  Initially I was going to have a 1x2 plate in the center, but that makes it hard to center the piece as well, going 2 studs surrounding it would leave a rectangle.  I thought of remedying that by having a 6x6 square with the middle 4 studs being 2 1x2 jumper plates, that would center the fig pretty well.   However that would make the board bigger, 48x48.  Not out of the question, but I wanted to put it on a 48x48 baseplate and have some room at the edge to make some detailed surroundings.  Bigger than that makes the display footprint larger which I wasn't too keen on, plus a little additional cost for more parts.  Still it's something I may come back to if I don't like the way my current design lines up.

The other option is all tiles with no 'anchor point'.  I could still easily do that if the 1 stud option doesn't look right.  That makes the figures easy to knock over though.  Or I'd have to build some kind of baseplate (or use CMF baseplates) to provide stability.  That doesn't seem ideal, though I might have a mess around with it.

If any building technique experts can point out a way to centre a 1x2 plate inside a 5x5 square I'd love to hear it.  Maybe some kind of 2nd layer underneath with a jumper tile in the centre and then the 1x2 plate sits on top?  That would leave 1.5 stud gaps on either side though, how do you fill that, is there a solution?

 

​I think having two Royal Guard bishops flanking Vader and Palpatine would be very fitting.  If it were me, I think I would save the Fetts for a different SW chess set, although you could make them your rooks too.  

 

​Yeah 2 guards  would be cool and I had that pencilled in.  Then I want boba in there, I just have to have him, he's one of my favorites (isn't he everyones?), so could put boba as a knight, but then i liked the jedi vs sith I had setup with those, and I don't think he'd suit being a rook...  such dilemmas...  

 

[feed]

I picked up this set about a year ago. No real clue what it is and I don’t want to highjack the thread getting into the details on it. 

The board is 48*48, with the figs mounted on a 2*2 to center them and has a small surround. It's fairly effective but compared to the standard chess sets, it is pretty big.    

 

[TheOrcKing]

So I've decided to build my own Lego Star Wars chess set after being inspired by a few different versions I've seen online.  I want a neat way to display my SW minifig collection and to expand into some of the figs I don't have.

​*cough* *cough* Link. *cough* *cough*

[Grolim]

​*cough* *cough* Link. *cough* *cough*

​Thanks Orc.  I stumbled upon the Hoth one while doing some research.  All 3 are damn impressive.  A bit out of my skill league I think!

[Grolim]

Board almost complete:

Waiting on a bricklink shipment for the missing 1x1s.  I also splurged and got a UCS slave I Boba Fett!

[10230]

It looks like the 1 stud for the connection is recessed - deeper than the board. Is there a reason for this? Wouldn't that mean the the figures wouldn't stand well aside from the board?

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

It looks like the 1 stud for the connection is recessed - deeper than the board. Is there a reason for this? Wouldn't that mean the the figures wouldn't stand well aside from the board?

​

Board almost complete:

 

Waiting on a bricklink shipment for the missing 1x1s.  I also splurged and got a UCS slave I Boba Fett!

​

[Locutus001]

Board almost complete:

 

Waiting on a bricklink shipment for the missing 1x1s.  I also splurged and got a UCS slave I Boba Fett!

​Did you already consider making a board similiar to the pirates one? Where you can open up the board and store the minifigures inside and store the board easier as well?

Personally I'd go for that design, since it seems to be more practical. It probably would only mean minor changes to the board you already created.

[10230]

​

​

​Well, if you plan to put the missing 1x1s in the 'holes' - why is the board that high? I mean, why not putting the 2x2 and 1x2  tiles directly on the base plate?

Edited June 6, 2015 by 10230

[10230]

Also, I could imagine that the 1x1 might get stuck to the minifigure and not the board when you move the pieces. I didn't find a good replacement piece, but if you would be willing to redesign the board to have either 4x4 or 6x6 fields, you could use something like this for attaching the game pieces with just one stud, using a piece that most likely sticks to the ground much more than to the figure: