Originally posted by cpagano:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Bob.:
I wonder how figure makers respond to the posters that suggest that gamers "cast their own." A strong implication of figure piracy there. What proprtion of gamers cast their own figures?
I assumed it was rare.
-Chris P. </font>[/QUOTE]It is a LOT rarer than it used to be.
I should NOT name any names here, but most of the lead that I used to have (well over 2 tons) was aquired through "piracy". Anyone who has been to school for any studio art will know how to pirate pretty much any figure.
I think that most of my friends in the 1980s also aquired most of their miniatures through casting their own...
For myself, and several of my friends... We worked at miniature companies where we had the run of the place and could make our own molds and cast the figures when we were not otherwise making miniatures for the company. The owners would turn a blind eye (Often because they were doing the same thing). I think that it was in 1990 when the companies began to crack down on this. I know that Partha cracked down on it MUCH sooner than others (Their figures were the most pirated figures of the early years of gaming - So I expect that they understood why it was not a good idea).
I actually had a mold-maker/Vulcanizer, Lead pot and spin caster of my own until 1991. That way I didn't have to count on a company's equipment to make my own figures.
That said...
Casting your own figures from figures that you have bought from a miniature manufacturer is NOT illegal. It is illegal to sell them afterwards.
There are some problems with casting your own figures from those you buy from a company:
When you make a mold of a figure you get a slight shrinkage of the thickness of the figure across the plane of the mold-line. This is why you have a master mold that you cast figures from to make the production molds. That way the master molds do not degrade and you do not have that much shrinkage. Most sculptors who have been sculpting for a while know to take into account the shrikage and will thicken the greens a little. So, using a production figure to make a mold of will often result in figures that are too fragile to use (or they will break after a very short time of use).
I have discovered that Essex, Xyston, Corvus Belli and several other manufacturers who have "Thicker" figures will produce pirated copies fairly well... Mirliton, Chariot, and other manufacturers who have thinner figures will NOt survive another mold unless you have access to the minis from a Master Mold.
A disclaimer here is that I have not actually made any molds of these figures. I have made measurments of these figures across their mold lines and taken into account what percentage of Shrikage I know will occur, and then calculated the thickness of the various parts that would be in danger of breaking or having casting problems... From those figures I reached the above conclusions...
If I still had a mold maker and spin caster... I would still be making molds and spinning my own figures.