Rough wooden set

Stumbled across an eBay listing of a janggi set, for very little. Made an offer, which was immediately accepted, so here it is!

The pieces are wooden, very roughly made, and certainly not 'commercial' in any sense. Seller said that a family member had picked it up many years ago in North Korea. So a truly hand-made set from the home of janggi!

As the pieces were so 'rough', I wanted to make a board that matched that. So, basically, a board that looked like it was quickly put together, from material that was just lying around. 

Looking for such material that was 'just lying around', I saw in our shed some wood panels that were part of a box for a fancy wine bottle. Perfect for my rough janggi board!

Joined up the panels, and noticed that they were slightly warped, surely due to the humidity in the shed. Rather than trying to flatten them, I decided not to try and get rid of the warping, and regard it as a design feature rather than a flaw.

Keeping with the 'rough' nature of the board, I simply hand-pained the lines on it, using brown paint.

So this is what the full set looks like!

And to show the slight warping of the board from another angle:

I think the board really fits the pieces, and the warping really does add something unique!

A more fancy Terracotta Warriors set

One of the earlier xiangqi sets in the collection was one with pieces resembling Terracotta Warriors. Those pieces were pretty basic, made from some sort of resin or plastic. 

I was aware that a much more fancy version of this set was on the market, with metal pieces, made from copper and brass. As you might expect, usually with asking prices well above what I was willing to pay. Until one day ...

The set comes with a wooden box, containing the pieces nicely embedded. 

The box opens up to serve as the board.

And here is the full set, with all pieces in their starting position.

Same figures as my earlier, more basic, Terracotta Warriors set. Same size, but just higher up the 'fancy scale'!

Pocket set

Saw this small pocket xiangqi set on Temu, and, well, couldn't resist ... Comes in a wee plastic box:

And the board is a transparent plastic film:

It's not the smallest xiangqi set in the collection. That 'honour' still goes to the dollhouse set I got a few years ago.