Original Chaos Dwarf models in digital format

There have been some courageous people trying to keep our beloved big hats alive on Cults3D, but they often get removed due to copyright issues.

What are your thoughts on printing copies of miniatures that have been off the shelves for 30 years? Here is my ideas:

I. You can always spot the real originals. No confusion to that, i.e., no value loss for collectors.

II. There is no revenue loss for GW.

III. These .STL make the otherwise unattainable figures available, keeping this part of Warhammer World alive.

I wish GW would start selling .STL of their old old ranges… But I doubt it. I am historian by trade and it saddens me to see how little appreciation these amazing old sculpts get.

Also people like Fabelzel who has done a tremendous work on his range of chorfs. Kudos to you, my good sir.

So, what’s the general consensus on “recasts” by printing? And I only mean figures long out of print. 20+ years.

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For OOP (out of production) models It’s a contentious issue for sure. Still, there’s no denying that GW still holds the copyright to the models. We here on CDO are not GW’s copyright lawyers, but we also are not in the business of enabling copyright theft. Everyone is free to post pictures of their models and nobody can expect us to verify whether each and every model is an original, nor do we care. We will, however, remove links to STLs (or black market shops) if somebody proudly proclaims he has scanned/recast a clearly trademarked model, if only to protect ourselves.

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Of course. Just how people feel about the OOP digital renders. I really wish GW would start distributing these themselves. Would pay $$$

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God knows if they ever make a MTO run of their big hat range they will be flooded with orders. :man_shrugging:

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Aye, I just wished they would change their business model of “selling scarcity and hype” to selling great games and providing people with the means to express themselves through their amazing figurines.

I started with GW in 1995 and I guess it won’t ever change.

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Yes, what the others say.
I see no moral problem in people using them, openly or not, and this changes precisely when they are being distributed under false or misleading description into actual (not just legal) fraud.

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I was a big time collector, possibly I have the ‘best’ 3rd/4th ed CD collection in the world…I don’t know.

However, the attitude of some collectors is really anal; like the old ‘collecting citadel miniatures’ forum.

Of course, selling on something like recasts without letting the person know, or trying to portray recasts as originals are massive no nos.

Other than that, in my opinion anything is fair game. Resin printed figures…I’d be happy to see any and all…well as long as it doesn’t devalue my collection of course!

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Fans of the models should want other fans to be able to have the models even if it devalues their own collections. The models aren’t available commercially, there are no indications that they ever will be again, the copyright holders don’t even sell an equivalent alternative and have declared that they have no plans to do so - it’s very hard to say that it is morally wrong for someone to reproduce and/or make available to others the otherwise-unavailable art.

That’s different from the legal position though.

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Respectfully disagree. You don’t have a moral case to stand on in arguing with an artist about his art. Artist only wants to make a single piece of his art and have a completely unique piece? Nothing anyone can do or say about it.

That’s not really the case here though, these were widely available products. I think I would probably agree with you for the specific case of art that was always intentionally limited.

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Doesn’t matter. You don’t have any inherent right to possess somebody’s art even if it was once widely available.

Tbh I’m a little puzzled we’re actually having this conversation. I mean I have pirated my fair share of music in my life, as probably most of us at a certain age have, but I would never stand on a hill and claim I had any right, be it moral or legal, to.

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