Scheming for a New Chess Set
Alan Young
I am finalizing a design for another Chess set. This will be for my nephew who served 4 years in the Navy on the USS George Washington Air Craft Carrier and is about to be commissioned as an ROTC officer for the Air Force (First Lieutenant?) So the pieces will have a Navy/Air Force Theme. Coins from the two service branches will be embedded in corners of the playing board. The last set I made was fabricated from Brass and Aluminum
but the weight differential was not satisfactory.
My goal is to have each set evenly weighted. I have found a local powder coating company that I think can coat one or both sets. So my choice of materials seems to be Brass, Aluminum and Steel. Between these thee materials Brass and Steel are close enough in weight-The Steel could be powder coated. Or each set could be Aluminum with one set powder coated, or each set Steel and both sets Power Coated. I am trying to decided the colors of the two service branch playing pieces. Given the three available materials-Does Brass or Aluminum fit one Service Branch? Or what color scheme would you Military Vets choose for each set-It seems Blue is obvious for the Navy but the Air Force also has Blue in the scheme. Would two different shades of blue work for this set? What combinations am I missing? Thanks for your thoughts.
-Alan
