Lord of the Rings set

I first read Lord of the Rings as a young boy, and I've long lost count as to how many times I've read and re-read the books. So it seems only appropriate that at some point in time, a Lord of the rings chess set would be added to the collection.

Popping up on eBay quite frequently is a resin Lord of the Rings set, consisting of 'busts' of several of the key characters. As it is listed so regularly, I could simply wait until I got my hands on one for not very much.

The set does not come with a board, so that was mine to create. I was keen to incorporate 'rings' in the board design in some way; looking at a range of options, I finally decided on 'snap' curtain rings, which came in two colours (old gold and silver), and very conveniently with 32 per set.

As finishing touch I got a pair of 'one rings' plus a small gold-plated chain off Amazon.

And this is what the completed board then looks like!

And again, with the pieces added.

Black pieces include Saruman as king, a ringwraith as queen, and several orks (including Lurtz) as bishops, knights, rooks and pawns.

The white pieces have Gandalf as king, Galadriel as queen, Frodo as bishop, Aragorn as knight, Gimli as rook, and Sam as pawn.

Judge for yourself; I'm quite pleased with this board, and the set in general.