I need to tap into the amazing talent that lurks on this forum. My father has asked me to build him a custom chess set using warhammer pieces. What I am having trouble with is how to make the board itself. I have a little experience with terrain making but nothing like this that will need to be durable and last hopefully forever. So I need some brainstorming ideas because I am at a loss of what materials would be good to start with. I am thinking all pieces will be put on 40 x 40 bases. I am also looking to make this scenic.

Here are some of the armies I am considering as well, I would love any ideas anyone has here too!

Dwarves vs High Elves

Wood elves vs Beatmen

Empire vs Chaos

Undead vs Brets

Chaos Dwarves vs Dwarves

Once again, I really need some help with this. My father has never asked anything of me and would be well deserving of this.

Neat idea - if it's me, of the options you've listed, I would do Wood Elves vs Beastmen. It would give the most contrast of the options you've listed. I could also see an Elf/Skaven or combo working OK. Another option would be using orcs as one of the bad guys. Goblins would make great pawns, and maybe fanatics or squig hoppers would be fun knights (might also explain their unusual movement) I think I would also do shorter bases for pawns, and taller bases for the more important pieces, so they're recognizable easily. Maybe even paint the "classic" chess symbol on the back of each base, so people can easily distinguish the knights from the bishops and such.

As for what to make the board out of, it depends on how much money you're willing to spend. I would look at the formica stuff they use to make countertops with. Get a neutral-ish color, and paint squares over it.

Thank you very much. Keep the ideas coming! Also I just noticed my typo "Beatmen" and it made think that would be an interesting conversion....beastmen gors with beat boxes and drums....

I like the idea. You cold also take a piece of MDF, grid it off with tape and make the squares out of 2 different colors of flock, like grass and dead grass. Does it look realistic? No. Would it look like a chess board? Yes.

You could also make a small frame to set the MDF on so the board has some height/depth to it. Just a thought.

Now you have me picturing a big minotaur with a "Flava Flav" clock around his neck, saying "Yeah, Boyee!". That will take a while to get out of my head. Thanks.

"Beatmen!"

Now that does need a converted army

Wood could be a good medium: carve it how you want (lines and stuff should be fairly easy to indent into a flat square block of wood), then cover it with varnish to protect the surfaces.

https://www.udemy.com/blog/wood-carving-for-beginners/

As regards the armies:

Orcs and Goblins versus Brettonia would work well:

O&G
Skarsnik as King
Grimgor as Queen
Orc Shamans as Bishops
Orc Boar Riders as Knights
Trolls as Rooks
Goblin archers as pawns

Brettonia
King Leoncoeur as King
Fay Enchantress as Queen
Damsels as Bishops
Grail Knights as Knights
Pegasus Knights as Rooks
Bowmen as pawns

I'd go for Dark Elves v High Elves personally. They have everything needed:

Pawns: Spearmen/Dreadspears
Rooks: Executioners/Swordmasters
Knights: Cold one Knights/ Dragon princes
Bishops: Black Guard/ Phoenix Guard (maybe)
Queens: Supreme sorceress/ Archmage
Kings: Dreadlord/ Prince

Or go all out and try and squeeze Malekith and Tyrion on the king pieces and Morathi and Teclis on the queens.

Also @Red... Still trying to imagine Grimgor as a queen

If you go strictly with elves, you can paint the playing field as a mixture of black and white marble. Add in a few cracks in the stone, with skull or some rubble and a plant sticking out and it should give quite a spectacular result.

That would look especially cool, maybe even mounting the models on elven ruins.

If I was doing the board I would have it textured as an ash wasteland them and have patches of snow and or rocks for the white squares. I would even use plaster or clay to build each square up with a bit of elevation difference and actually make it look like a field. There has to be a craft shop near you where you can buy individual square pieces of mdf. Should be cheap enough

As for armies
I love the wood elf and beastmen idea. Rank and file minis will work great for the pawns. Find some nice models from whatever army then base the other minis around them.

I'd have to agree with Duffman. This is getting a lot of great ideas!

Dark elf vs high elf
Pawns crossbow men and archers or spearman on both sides perhaps lothern sea guard vs corsairs for pirate theme. I reckon spearman though, they always look good as a rank n file.
Rooks can be ellyrion readers and dark riders (being flankers)
Knights can be the COK and dragon princes
Bishops can be the mages from both factions but I would use 2 of the same mini for each side
Kings can be whatever hero on foot
Queens can be either ever queen and morathi / Hellebron
But I reckon a shadowblade vs blind eltharion would be great queens

imo the problem with dark elf vs high elf is that they wouldn't be that easy to distinguish one side from the other. I think you want two races that are different enough to tell at a very quick glance who is who.

but that's just me, it's not my project.

A high contrast paint job could fix that potentially.

Exactly. After all, real chess pieces look exactly the same for both sides.

For bishops I'd take swordmasters and black guard (for the poiny helmets, like real bishops)
Archers/Darkshards as pawns.
And of course the everqueen as white queen.

Just the rooks .. to be able to distinguish them you would like to have tower like shapes (like http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics1 ... 599d06.jpg), it's just that there's none available at that scale.

I thought about doing this some time ago - I'd use High Elf vs Dark Elves

I also think using two different colours of flock would look good.

Nice find there Cult. Some good examples.