Thank you for the helpful reply .
I really can’t use any modeling software, hence the thought of separating out models scares me lol. I did try blender ages ago and it just never worked out for me.
At least I understand what is needed now.
And thank you also for those blender models, I have done searches for chess related models many times over the years and those have never popped into the search results.
That might be my best option for now 
Oh and one had a chess scene where the pieces have movable arms etc, which is exactly what I want in the longer term. If only I can use that scene. I will give them ago. many thanks.
[edit: I can’t find all of the individual pieces I need in blendswap, so I am probably back to square one of working out how to separate them.]
Cheers,