Ecliptic design now available in ABS plastic

@Yenster1 - what a great mod to the set. I wish I had the fine motor skills and patience to do that, as @conorokane says, it looks fantastic.

Conor, I truly have to give you more kudos on the set, a very nicely done set of pieces and a good addition to my collection.

Yes indeed, a cool modification. Well done! I had to laugh too - while the folding board that came with my set is well made and serviceable, like Yenster, when I got home I immediately placed them on a similarly colour wooden board. The pieces sat comfortably on the upgraded board. Here’s the board folded and open and then the pieces on my wooden board.

Now wait just a minute there @Powderdigit ... how did you acquire this set? Might you have procured it from Conor with a few beers? hmmm

Ha, yes I did purchase it and pick it up from him yesterday - and I purchased him a few drinks too. As I noted, it was great to chat to Conor … it was cool to hear how some design aspects of these pieces have been inspired by historical chess sets but also aspects of typography and quill pens … I won’t do it justice to try to explain but it was fun to listen.
He also gets the divisive nature of the pieces too… some will like it, some will not - take Lou’s view of the stem on the knight as being an example. I love such discussions …my sense is it’s never going to compete with other plastic sets - take Shelby’s wonderful ‘ultimates’ and their design focus on playability and innovative weight system … I still want that set but this maybe is a different market - I’ll have this on rotational display to start conversations in my home and gladly use it play at the pub too.👍

PS - I also got some prototypes too - to see the evolution of the pieces and how they come out when 3D printed! I’ll post photos another time but it’s all very interesting. I’ll also not some drawback/issues I note with the pieces when I get a chance too.

I decided to refelt my Ecliptic pieces in blue.

I used stiffened felt, which is thicker and more rigid than traditional felt or billiard-table baize. This allows it to be cut with a compass cutter.

Here are all the felt discs ready to apply. I attached them with PVA glue. The black velvet on the bases can be easily peeled off.

And here's the end result:

I've paired them with a blue/white vinyl roll-up board to make this an ideal travel set. The Ecliptic pieces have fairly broad bases so they are more comfortable on a larger board. This board is 2.15" squares which I think fits them well.

👌Looks great. 👍

Interesting @conorokane and agreed, you did a professional job of re-felting. You learn something new every day, should you be willing to look for and accept it. A "compass cutter" is new to me, and now going to try to find one. So happy you shared pictures of your process.

What kind of grit did you use to dull the pieces, Yenster1 ? I have some glossy plastic pieces that I would like to sand.

@DelphinSnow I used this sanding sponge from Walmart that only says 'fine' so there wasn't a grit spec. I had 600 grit sandpaper, which felt very similar in grit, but bought this sponge to better suit the curved surfaces. I also used this sponge to "de-gloss" a shiny 'BCBESTCHESS' board from Amazon with great results...a smooth matte finish.

@Yenster1 Thank you, that gives me some idea of what I should be looking for.

I sent a set to Al Su Chess and he was kind enough to make a review video:

The unboxing and review starts at 7:30 so feel free to jump ahead to skip the (rather long) introduction. Alex was particularly impressed with the mouse-pad board and so this video shows some nice close-ups of the stitching and print on the board, as well as excellent clear photography of the pieces themselves.

Australian chess fans - you can now buy the Ecliptic set directly from chessworld.com.au for AU$89 with free shipping.
https://www.chessworld.com.au/prevision-ecliptic-chess-set/

Chessworld is a great store that I've bought chess accessories from myself in the past so I'm very happy to have my design on sale there. If you're in Australia please consider supporting a local store.

@conor_okane I think your 3D designs are great. I tried scaling a different design for a smaller board but proportions were awkward. I'd really like if you also offered variations for smaller boards (like 35 and 45 mm squares).