Imperator Vase Chess Pieces (Patreon)

Howdy, wonderful people!

Here we have swirly-style vase mode chess pieces, sized according to tournament standards and waiting to line up on a board near you.

I've had endless requests for chess sets over the years, but it wasn't until a recent call for vase mode chess pieces that I really got inspired.  Chess pieces have certain characteristics that can pose problems for support-free printing, and adding the constraints of vase mode make it doubly challenging!  What I really wanted was:

* Pieces that immediately conveyed traditional chess piece designs.  I've used sets that stylise things so far that it gets easy to temporarily mistake a bishop for a knight, for example, and that's just annoying.

* Support-free, strictly-printable objects that are completely closed - no gaps that let the inside be visible.

* Some degree of robustness despite being vase mode.  Of course, printing the models in regular mode will give vastly stronger results, but vase mode is fun!

The first thing you'll notice is the swirly pattern that winds up each piece.  Apart from being nicely tactile and looking fancy these lines add a degree of strength and rigidity to the prints.  I try to avoid having horizontal slices with a smooth perimeter - a few bumps and notches along the way makes a huge difference to overall strength.

Each of the pieces plays games with angles to let vase mode form shapes that aren't necessarily obviously achievable in vase mode, but in each case the perimeter at any given height is neatly supported by the layer immediately below it.  The tricky thing was to come up with forms that were vase-mode-compatible and that were nicely identifiable.  The queen went through the most versions, purely because it was fun to explore different crowns...

Print Description

These are vase mode prints, so set your slicer accordingly!

You can of course print these in normal mode, too, and fill in that interior for strength!  They'll still look the same on the outside :)

Print Dimensions

These pieces comply with the official size standards for chess pieces, which I didn't even know was a thing until I started this!  However, they will all scale up and down easily.

For reference, the king occupies 47mm x 47mm on the print bed and is 96mm tall by default!

Supports Needed?

Not at all!  Designed for straightforward printing!

Scalability

These will scale neatly!

Print Orientation

Each piece prints base-down, like so:

File Location

You'll find this one at at 626 Imperator Vase Chess Pieces

Link to dropbox post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592

Further Thoughts

The obvious next question is: what  about a board!  The tricky thing there is that a properly-sized board is a large print, and these pieces were intended to print quickly.  

I did explore some options for making a very sparse, skeletonised board but the actual print time remains significant thanks to the perimeters involved.  I did also explore the idea of a hinged board, folding in quarters, but given the dimensions of a full-sized board that's going to be a very tall, wobbly print!  

Anyway, we do need a board, I think, but whether it's a 64-piece tessellation or a single articulated model I can't yet say!...

Happy !

xoxo

Sven.