This is a chess set I made as a birthday present for my son.  The chess pieces were cast using Prince August fantasy moulds (25mm fantasy armies moulds and classic fantasy moulds). I based each of the foot troops by super gluing them to a nickel and covering the base with Fastmache.  Once dry, I painted the chess pieces with a combination of acrylic paints I picked up at the local craft store for $1 per large bottle and a few Citadel colors and ink shades, which ran me $4 for a small bottle.  Even though I think most Citadel products are over priced, their paint provides excellent coverage (one coat) and their shading inks are superb. Ink washes get into the cracks and crevices and hold their color extremely well. Back in the old days, before I discovered inks, I would thin down acrylic paint for the wash. It worked well sometimes, but other times it was very tricky and time consuming to get the shading right. I found the inks worked so well that I could sometimes just do an ink wash without having to do any highlighting and the figure still looked great. After painting each figure, I sprayed them with Testors Spray Lacquer, which provides good protection for the paint and adds a nice sheen. For the Goblin Wolf Riders and mounted Knight King, I glued together two small Citadel plastic bases and mounted the figures on them. The bases Citadel sells for mounted figures was too large in size to fit inside the square on a chess board, but by combining two small bases, the figure fit perfectly within the square.  I rubber cemented felt to the bottom of each chess piece (cost me .34 cents for a sheet that covered the entire set). For the chess carrying case, I purchased a small wooden box at the local craft store for $12, which I freehand drew Thror's map from The Hobbit book.  I then wood burned the map on the box. To complete the chess case, I purchased "Pluck foam" at a local gaming shop and cut out each section to fit the pieces.  Pluck foam is pretty cool stuff. You can easily cut it to fit the size of your miniatures; it provides excellent protection against damage, and it is reasonably priced ($12 for a large sheet).  I rubber cemented the pluck foam to the inside of the wooden case so it would not slide around during transport. My son absolutely loves the set and wants to play chess every night!  I wanted to make him something special that he would never forget and hopefully pass onto his children one day.