Chess - Queen's Chess, Shatranj, Chataranga, variants

Hello, I have spent the past six months or so desperately trying to find a complete set of "Tamerlane" or Timur Chess pieces, to include the Giraffe, Camel and War Machine pieces. Constantly meeting with no success, I talked to a friend about 3d printing, and he turned me on to shapeways.com.

In the mean time I hired a WONDERFUL 3d modeller and setup a store (https://www.shapeways.com/shops/chessexotic) so I can finally get one of these unique and super cool sets in my hands.

I think I might print out the whole set in plastic first, but part of me really wants to just bite the bullet and get it printed in metal now =\ I wish I had the money on hand.

Are there any other chess enthusiasts on this forum? Are any of you guys interested in rare and proto forms of chess?

Welcome! These look great. I've met people who have expressed interest in older versions of the game, so I would hope others would find your work. Are you a member of any chess clubs or forums?

I wish I had money on hand, too. Restraint is a virtue, if that makes it feel better.

Thanks! Yeah, as someone who enjoys "normal" chess and board games, it seemed like a really cool version, and I was appalled because I couldn't find any pieces literally anywhere. I thought about whittling a set, but I don't know how to whittle, and I wanted pieces that really looked like the real life version, but still had that abstract chess look. The designer I hired was named Nikita Krutov, and I found them through this same site.

I don't post, but I read the comments/forums of chessvariants.org: chessvariants.org: http://www.chessvariants.org/historic.dir/ tamerlanearab.html

it does a little

I was going to say maybe it's about time for that to change, but two people already posted comments on that site linking to your shop. Either they're your pawns or you have fans already!

Have you considered a cheaper set of mini pieces? And a printable board? Thin plastic version (or even a wire outline) and a special color sandstone version?

Yeah, google analytics definiately is showing there is interest, but I think the biggest issue with the pieces is their probitive printing cost for some people (also as the game itself is free to play online, the target here is sort of a connoisseur chess player at the moment until costs go down ). Since I wanted this set for myself, and I insisted it be printable in metal, I knew it might be an issue. One idea I had is printing smaller pawns, so the current pawn set could also be used as a full side minus the pawns. This would still be in the hundreds of dollars for a set.

I have talked to a friend who's family owns a woodworking shop in India, who once I deliver him some printed plastics hopefully can get me a good price on a set of wooden hand carved pieces. I am also talking to a factory in china about getting molds made for plastic, but I have had bad experiences with these sorts of projects, and I cannot really travel to China to do it right, and I don't speak Chinese regardless.

For the boards, I am having one made by a local woodworker, because I want a board that is something that can be used for courier chess as well.

I have thought about offering a 3d printed board, and in sandstone it would amazing, but I didn't think the dimensions could be handled as it's basically a foot in each direction, technically 11 x 12 with the citadels. Do you think that would be feasible with current print ability?

You've really done your homework!

https://www.shapeways.com/materials/full-color-sandstone says "Max bounding box 250 × 380 × 200 mm" so 11 x 12 in is too big. You could print two halves that fit together.

Have you hollowed out these pieces?