Casting

[HarasinCreed]

Ok i have a question i am going to be building a Japanese Space Marine army and i will be modelling extra armour and samouri helmets and swords for each guy. I only want to make 10 marines and then make casts of the original 10 for the next 20. So my questions are Will i be able to walk into GW with them? Will i be aloud to use them at tournaments. And will i be taken to court and have to work for the rest of my life as a slave to GW to pay off the law suit?

 

Ed

[kizzap88]

Casting as a process is not illegal. What you are proposing is. It is only legal to cast something that you have IP rights over. GW owns the rights to all of thier range of models. However, I doubt you would face lawsuits for doing it, Those are generally reserved for people who go out and aim to mass reproduce the models and sell them.

 

That said, DON'T go out and mass mould your models. If you are going to mould anything, do it only on your modifications (IE custom weapons, etc.) on what is your own work.

[Alphz]

I think you are allowed to cast for personal uses, but using casting on the scale you're suggesting might be dubious for the purposes of tournaments. (Should be OK in terms of not getting a law suits though).

 

as kizzap suggets, just cast the modifications you make to the standard marine and then you can glue them onto standard GW models and done!

[Brother Valerius]

Will you get sued? I doubt it. As the others have said, that's for profit-making ventures, not personal use. Will you get kicked out of GW events if they find out? I would imagine so, although if you do a good job I can't imagine that you will get caught. As long as you aren't running around bragging that your army is made up of copying a single tactical squad box, no one will be able to tell.

 

The more important question, which you haven't asked, is: is it ethical? I would have to say that no, it isn't. Copying random bits so you can use them for conversion is one thing, but copying models for your entire army is a really awful thing to do. The money you spend on minis doesn't just go into paying for molded plastic. It pays for the artists who sculpt the models, the designers who write the rules, the writers who craft the story. If you do what you're proposing, you are in a very real sense killing the game you (presumably) enjoy. So I would urge you to just not go there. Buy the models and support the people who create the game we all love.

[Solid Zaku]

Valerius is on the money (or the lack thereof). If you're that strapped for money, then just pick up a Codex, do a little dumpster diving at a modelling workshop day at your FLGW and play Spruecrons.

[HarasinCreed]

Thanks for all the replies. Just to clear some stuff up i wasnt casting them because i dont have much money or i dont want to spend a whole lot. I was going to cast because the amount of detail i am wanting to put on each model would be rather frustraiting to model on each guy and i dont thing it would be able to cast seperatly.

 

But i dont think that even if i did cast my whole army to save money i dont think it would kill GW. Even just the one box of miniatures i buy will probably cover about 4 boxs in reality. But GW ridicualas discounts is a different topic.

 

Well it looks like people are saying i should seperatly cast each part which shouldnt be too bad because then i can sell the casts i made.

 

Thanks Guys

Ed

[onipunk]

If you were to cast a torso or samurai sword weapon for your own use, then that'd be okay. You're absolutely not allowed to sell any part, bit or model based on a GW mold. For example, say you were to mdel your own combi-melta by kitbashing plastic parts. You are not allowed to sell this in any form. The same goes for converted helmets, legs, torsos etc. which started off as GW plastics/metals/resins.

[madscuzzy]

Contrary to popular belief, casting minis is not cheap. Casting itself is a hefty investment and works out pretty nicely if you are going to make a profit of it, which is not what you are aiming for. To get really good casts requires some good casting equipment, and also to purchase the mold and resin, both of which you will need to experiment with before you even get used to casting.

 

Oh and learn to sculpt, or at the very least, be able to rebuild details that you lose, especially when you see nice bubbles...:P

[Tanhausen]

Agreed: casting has quite a learning curve!

 

Anything beyond 1 sided molds (usually bases) is quite hard to get away with if you simply gravity cast (as opposed to injection).

 

I have done quite a few two sided molds for personal sculpts... but its by no means a panacea.

[Hemal]

In fact what you are proposing would work out monetarily far mre expensive as you need the tooling to cast either in resin or metal, and if you are aiming for any decent standard, for resin you'd need a vacuum or pressure vessel as well..

[BOBMAKENZIE]

Keep in mind you can also cast around another piece. Like a pair of legs or a helmet. Its harder to do in some cases but it means your parts will be GW on the inside which will prevent you from getting kicked out for sure. Its like casting seperate bits and putting them on the legs etc but it can look alot better.

 

@Hemal. You'd be surprised a pressure casting rig can be built for about $100 dollars safely and will be able to cast metal or resin with ease. There are also kits on the market to make non pressure casting molds although these have some noticable draw backs they only cost a few dollars to make the mold and cents to make most parts. With alittle GS you can clean up the small issues with the casts too. (For the record I really only cast my own bases and models I have sculpted myself although there is the occaisional exception)

[he_plays_guitar]

I have casted many of my own sculpts and it is an expensive process. The two part resin I use costs about 16 USD per bottle. Then there is the silicone molds, which costs around 30 USD for a decent amount. Then you need to account for failed casts. I've done my own casts on GW stuff, I've taken a door to a rhino and sculpted my own logo, purity seal, chains, and other decorations with greenstuff. Then I made a mold for it and casted it to put on all my rhinos. Technically it's my own design but since I used the GW rhino door I can't sell it or make any money off of it. I've used them in my GW store in tournaments but I've been warned that if I do any sanctioned tournaments I could be asked to leave if someone notices they are casts, although it's almost impossible to tell. Most people assume they are from forgeworld anyway. Just be aware of the consequences.