Ok So for a long time I have wanted to make a sisters of battle force. There are just a few problems.
1.) I hate metal figs… They are hard to convert, and frankly (because I carve (with wood, epoxy putties, and clays) and mold and cast them) I thing plastics (and resins) give more detail.
2.) I hate the prices of metal figs… (enough said there)
3.) The first picture of a sister of battle fig I saw was the one with the helm. I like helms, I hate having any of my figs with out helms, (including heros) So as i recall there are only 3 sisters of battles with the awesome helm.
So with the above said, I was thinking about sculpting several sister of battle bodies, arms, legs, (everything to assemble them) and sculpt a few helms to vary them up, then just use space marine bolters (because i have so many extras) and other icons to add more details.
Now since I do not want to sculpt like 40 figs, I was wondering, AND HERE IS THE QUESTION…
Will GW, hit me up with some law suit, if I sculpt, mold, and cast a sisters of battle army, only molding and casting pieces that I sculpt, not any plastics or metals that GW produces, and then cast my army?
Now, I would only sculpt the foot soldiers, I still want some of the HQ and heavy support options (pen. engines look amazing, though I guess they are not the most effective.) and these I would buy from GW, I just want to customize my Sisters more then what metal will allow me.
The above are correct. GW owns the Intellectual Property of the models… I.E. the look and such. But, wont sue for you making your own miniatures. even those that use pieces of their miniatures. So long as you don’t sell them.
Now that said… If you were to make you own models from scratch using no GW you could sell them… you simply would have to remove things such as the Icons of the Inquisition and maybe the Fleur de Lys. You would have to call them something different and probably develop a fluff for them. You also can’t state that this models could be used as a replacement for GW product. Similar to what has been done with Avatars of War. Their Models are clearly designed to fit the warhammer motive but on paper they are for their own game.
Just be careful. IP laws are always a tricky thing and one that GW is fierce to protect. Likely they are not going to come after you unless yous tart selling large numbers of them.
Just be careful. IP laws are always a tricky thing and one that GW is fierce to protect. Likely they are not going to come after you unless yous tart selling large numbers of them.
Willmark
QFT.
The only way to be sure is to try it out (in court) and see what happens.
Ultraforge's "Generic Poo deamon" (as I like to call it) got slapped on the wrist by GW for looking too much like their GUO (and deservedly so) but they came to an agreement where Ultraforge made some slight changes that did not make it a direct copy of GW imagery.
Keep in mind though that there is a certain give and take, unless you do it prominently GW probably won't even notice but on the other hand GW can easily close down any sale (e.g. on Ebay or similar) by saying you are infringing. Most middlemen won't take the fight and just fold.
EDIT: Oh, and copyright is very country specific. Some places allow you a lot more freedom than others.
EDIT: Oh, and copyright is very country specific. Some places allow you a lot more freedom than others.
snowblizz
That said, remember that GW can now be considered a transnational company as they have HQ's all over the world, well in many area's of each region, but the Primary HQ is in The U.K. Grab a list of the Copyright laws for the U.K. as well as where you are situated in the world and have a read, assuming you can find them, I presume a google search would work well enough.
The only difference is if you use parts of their models to make yours and then sell it…if you do that then they’ll come in full guns blazing…
A canadian distributor tried that years ago. He sold GW figs, but ran behind, and they cut him off. he got mad, so he decided to do his own. Basically took GW figs, scraped off some detail and the icons, and then sculpted (pretty poorly imho) some new icons that were basically the same thing like “eagles on imp guard” which only had one head…he did make some other models but they were even more ugly…
The canadian mounties actually went up and confiscated the moulds. And fined him, I think basically out of business…
But if you sculpt your own, with your own basic vision, then call them “Victory Angels” or something like that then you’ll be fine…just don’t use the weapons or bits from a gw model for the basic figure…though of course, you could always take your model and convert some with gw bits for yourself.
And they have been watching ebay…they recently (like 6-7 months ago or so?) busted a guy who was selling limited edition minis on ebay…they were not made by gw, but by him with his own moulds…
Basically only sell stuff if its yours. If not, don’t. Making a few bits for yourself isn’t great from GW’s point of view, but its not like anyone can stop you as long as you don’t try to profit from their intellectual property. Look at Avatars of War, Gamezone or Heresy to get an idea of what you can and can’t get away with, if you decide to go any further. Although Gamezone are being pretty cheeky imo.
Don’t quote me on this, but I think you can cast guys and then give them away. As long as there is no profit to be made, I think it’s ok. But like I said - Don’t quote me!
