RE: [SG2] Seeking anyone with 20mm Blade Miniatures

>I don't agree I have seen copies better (some originals can be badly
cast) 
>or as good as the originals - you can't tell them apart. It actually
>amazed me they were so good as I was expecting detail challenged
replicas 
>as you suggest.
>
>I concluded that copy quality generally depends on the skill of the 
>caster and the equipment and materials used.

Yes.  I too have seen cast lead copies made in moulds that were taken
from
store-bought cast models that were as good as (or really close to being
as
good as) the original model.  Time and care taken in producing the
mould,
and using good material.  One of the best sources for casting figs is
melting down old lead figs...  My friend who casts metal has tried
several
sources of lead, and consistantly the best source is old figures... 
Other
sources often have strange impurities that mess with the fine detail
reproduction.

The RTV rubber "home casting" kits you see in hobby stores is usually a
MUCH softer material than the oven-vulcanized rubber they use for
production casting - and you can get EXCELLENT detail reproduction.  But
they don't last all that long.	I've seen some make over a dozen models
without a problem, but not much more than that - and by then the mould
is
degenerating...

If the figs you are casting are rare/impossible to find, or are really
expensive, then it is perhaps worth it - if they are reasonably priced
then
maybe not - the cost of RTV is rather high, for the amount of figs
you'll
get out of a mould.

>
>Its the legality/ethics of it that may stop you not the quality.
>

Well, legally there's nothing anyone can say if you decide you want to
cast
figs for your own use at home.	If I want to hand-build an exact replica
of
my car - there's NOTHING illegal about that.  If I try to SELL it, and
represent it as the original, that's a different story.  From a legal
point
of view, unless a product is protected by some kind of enforceable legal
mechanism (like a copyright for printed material or a patent for
machinery
or chemicals) there's not much you can do to stop someone making and
selling copies - unless they do so representing them as YOUR product.
Miniatures can't be patented, covered by copyright, protected by an
industrial design registration or registered as a trademark.  If a
company
tried to protect them, they would probably have to do each miniature one
at
a time - an clearly no-one could afford that (it costs a lot to get any
of
these types of protection).  I could probably start a company
manufacturing
copies of someone else's miniatures, and if I marketed them under a
completely different name, they'd have a hard time stopping me.  Of
course,
that would be completely unethical and I'd never do it personally - and
a
company like GW can hire teams of lawyers to scare people if they need
to...  If I were stupid enough to represent my knockoffs as ACTUAL GW
miniatures, they'd have legal grounds to stop me and litigate.	But all
of
this aside - there is no legal reason at all for you to not cast
miniatures
at home for your own use.

As to the ethics - it's up to you to decide if that's cool or not.... 

Adrian Johnson
ajohnson@idirect.com