Elaborate board for a simple xiangqi set

Picked up this very basic xiangqi set for very little.

Simple wooden pieces ...

... but what wasn't clear from the listing is that the Chinese characters were made with a metallic paint. 

The board that came with the set is the bog standard paper board.

The fact that metallic paint was used for the characters on the pieces triggered the flow of creative juices .... how about making a really elaborate board with the paper board at its heart?

Step one is simply take a rectangular piece of plywood, considerably larger than the paper board.

Step 2: adding edges to the plywood.

Step 3: adding a second edge around the centre, where the paper board will be.

Step 4: getting slices of tree branches, and using those for the 'feet' of the final board.

Step 5: painting the entire board with copper paint.

Step 6: gluing the paper board on to the more and more elaborate board. 

Step 7: getting four metal dragon figurines.

Step 8: gluing the metal figurines in place in the four corners of the board.

Step 9: putting the pieces on the now-completed elaborate board.

What do you think?

Really pleased with it!

Sanguoqi set

Sanguoqi, or Game of the Three Kingdoms, is a xiangqi variant for three players. The name refers to the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, which war took place in the 3rd century between the states of Wei, Shu and Wu. The game itself may date back to the 12th or 13th century, although this is disputed.

I've always had sanguoqi on my list to make a set for, and was spurred on when I came across a sanguoqi board with a slightly unusual shape:

In terms of pieces, when I got my original Terracotta Warriors set, I actually got two of them, with the idea of using the second set of pieces for 'something else'. Well, 'something else' has now arrived!

I decided to use the dark brown pieces from the first Terracotta Warriors set for my sanguoqi set, and paint the pieces of the second set middle brown ... 

... or light beige.

Then onto creating the board. Printed off the picture file of the coloured board with the unusual shape, and stuck that to a piece of plywood. 

Then, I used a hammer and awl to indicate where all the 'points' of the board need to be (you'll see why soon enough!)

With small holes for all 'points', I got rid of the printed-off picture, and then sawed off the edges, giving it a hexagonal shape.

I used wood stain to highlight the playing area (pine wood stain) and y-shaped river (mahogany wood stain).

To create the lines, I used gold-coloured leather strips, and used upholstery pins for the points. See now why I needed the small holes for each point?

Board completed!

Final step, as always: put the pieces on the board.

Very pleased with how this sanguoqi set worked out; actually even better than I expected!

Yongji xiangqi

Stumbled across a modern xiangqi variant, referred to as 'Crowded Xiangqi', or yongji xiangqi:

Easy to see what makes it 'crowded'! Full set of pieces on basically half a standard xiangqi board!

As I still had an 'extra' faux-leather board, I decided to use that to create a yongji xiangqi board. 

Sharp scalpel to cut off the two palace areas ...

... which I then glued to a piece of black faux leather I still had lying around from making my Congo set.

I decided to use the same set of pieces that I used for my mini xiangqi set. This way, all of the pieces of that set will finally be used!

Voila, an easily-made set for yongji xiangqi!

Wooden tray board

This xiangqi set looked a bit different from the sets I already have in the collection, so, as you might expect, I got it for not very much at all.

I reckon it dates to at least a few decades back. Maybe 80s, but I'm really guessing now. Made of wood, with two trays on either side to store the pieces when not used, or keep captured pieces.

The pieces themselves are pretty basic wooden pieces.

And this is what it looks like with all the pieces stored in the two trays at either end.

'Scroll' board for a very large xiangqi set

Saw this very large xiangqi set listed on Temu, and, judging from the details in the listing, it would be the set with the largest pieces in the collection.

Pieces really are big!

The set comes with a large (obviously!) plastic sheet for a board, and I decided to do a bit more with that, but, for a while, wasn't sure what exactly.

Until I hit upon the idea of incorporating the sheet into a scroll of sorts. Would that work?

So got myself a pair of basic broom handles and painted the two ends of each with pine wood stain. Also got a roll of adhesive 'wood effect' vinyl.

I wasn't planning to use the vinyl as 'adhesive', so didn't remove the backing. Rather, I simply attached it at both ends to the 'scroll handles'.

Final stage of creating the 'scroll board' is then to attach the plastic sheet to the vinyl 'scroll', using pretty much invisible magic tape. 

And this is what it looks like when the very large pieces are placed on the 'scroll' board!

I feel it worked out pretty well!

Adding a silk ribbon to secure the rolled-up 'scroll' board adds a nice finishing touch.

Given that the pieces of this set are definitely the largest in the collection (so far?), I thought it would be nice to line up the black/green generals from a few sets to show the current size range. From left to right, the dollhouse set, the pocket set, the beechwood set, my first xiangqi set, the ebony set, the large jade 'garden' set, and the current very large set: