Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Thanks to a youtube video showing off a tau girl pin-up sculpt, I have come across this seller with some fantastic looking Sororitas amongst others (like the Starcraft Marine!)













I have never seen these miniatures before. Any ideas if they are the legit deal? ( I'm not even certain I can share the link to his ebay store )

Legit? Both.

No, because these are not from GW.
Yes, if he made the sculpt himself.

What would they be recasts of? GW has never released these miniatures.

They are original sculpts designed to appeal to 40K fans. Plenty of those on the market and none are illegal.

 -DE- wrote:
What would they be recasts of? GW has never released these miniatures.

They are original sculpts designed to appeal to 40K fans. Plenty of those on the market and none are illegal.

Because they could be Forgeworld special editions that I'm not aware of, like the Arbites with a Cyber Mastiff.

Well, here's the link to the store: http://www.ebay.com/sch/montastore/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

That guy also makes some amazing eldar stuff.

 TheDraconicLord wrote:

 -DE- wrote:
What would they be recasts of? GW has never released these miniatures.

They are original sculpts designed to appeal to 40K fans. Plenty of those on the market and none are illegal.

Because they could be Forgeworld special editions that I'm not aware of, like the Arbites with a Cyber Mastiff.

Well, here's the link to the store: http://www.ebay.com/sch/montastore/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Well, they aren't. These are brand new indie sculpts, so purchase away.

These have been knocking about for years, they're russian sculpts. Be aware that the guy selling them in the store linked above is also selling recasts of indie sculpts from people he doesn't have permission from though, so by buying one you're supporting the other.

Aye looking through what that seller has on offer there's some definite Forgeworld recasts in there as well as recasts of Indie models as well (some of which use GW parts). So trust them as far as you can throw a stick. That and I'd be a little distrustful of them, not just for being an Eastern European recaster, but you know that they may not be able to fulfill their order commitments due to shipping from an active war zone (whichever side of that border they be on. Oh, but not to be prejudiced against Ukrainian sellers, its just a possible logistical issue).

Yes- at a glance, he has a Warforged mini (his 'female commissar is Viktoria Skivlana).

There are many that I've never seen before, but I honestly wonder if any of it is actually his original work, or if you can find all of it from some company or another.

 odinsgrandson wrote:
Yes- at a glance, he has a Warforged mini (his 'female commissar is Viktoria Skivlana).

There are many that I've never seen before, but I honestly wonder if any of it is actually his original work, or if you can find all of it from some company or another.

I've seen practically all of it elsewhere. Much of it is unobtainable from the original sources these days, so that's fine, but there's plenty there that isn't.

I'm pretty certain none of those are recasts of GW sculpts so there's no legal issue there. (If they are recasts of lesser known sculptors work I have no idea though).

However, even though the figures are not recasts of GW models, at least some of them are more or less obviously based on the GW sisters of battle designs and artwork and thus GW would have a case against the seller for breaching Copyright/Design/Trademark laws.

Since these figures have been available on eBay for a long time I assume that either GW is unwilling or unable to put legal resources into trying to have them taken down. I assume due to a combination of the market for BattleSisters being small and due to difficulty of their legal actions having effect in Ukraine or Russia.

In other words. The legality of some of the figures may (and very probably would be IMO) be questionable IF it was to be tried in court. Until GW or anyone else with a claim actually push the question though, there should not be any problem ordering them. (at least not any more that usual, when ordering stuff online from unknown sellers).

It's actually a bit strange that these figures have not ben targeted by the otherwise litigious-happy GW, or Blizzard, since some of the figures (I'm not primarily thinking of the sororitas) are quite blatantly infringing.

Zywus wrote:
I'm pretty certain none of those are recasts of GW sculpts so there's no legal issue there. (If they are recasts of lesser known sculptors work I have no idea though).

However, even though the figures are not recasts of GW models, at least some of them are more or less obviously based on the GW sisters of battle designs and artwork and thus GW would have a case against the seller for breaching Copyright/Design/Trademark laws.

Since these figures have been available on eBay for a long time I assume that either GW is unwilling or unable to put legal resources into trying to have them taken down. I assume due to a combination of the market for BattleSisters being small and due to difficulty of their legal actions having effect in Ukraine or Russia.

In other words. The legality of some of the figures may (and very probably would be IMO) be questionable IF it was to be tried in court. Until GW or anyone else with a claim actually push the question though, there should not be any problem ordering them. (at least not any more that usual, when ordering stuff online from unknown sellers).

It's actually a bit strange that these figures have not ben targeted by the otherwise litigious-happy GW, or Blizzard, since some of the figures (I'm not primarily thinking of the sororitas) are quite blatantly infringing.

Most of the ones on there don't actually pop up that often. This chap seems to have taken the time to assemble what have been up until now, some reasonably rare pieces for recasting. As such, there simply hasn't really been anyone selling them for GW to nail. I know that Irina, the one who made the Thousand Sons stuff, shut up shop a few years ago, and I haven't seen the rhino mod kit for at least three years. The pseudo-Sororitas had a Russian ebay vendor about eight months ago, but he only ever listed in dribs and drabs. And so on.

Hrm. Leave it to the swap shop mod to know.

Unless I'm mistaken, all of the alternative Sisters models are Svarog Miniatures.

http://svarogminiatures.com/

 Neconilis wrote:
Unless I'm mistaken, all of the alternative Sisters models are Svarog Miniatures.

http://svarogminiatures.com/

I had no idea about this store and in fact I already spotted some of the miniatures like the female "busty" comissar and the Mother Superior with the girl.

Well spotted, confirming what everyone else was saying

(And with this, I now have a brand new store where to spend some muneyz! )

Ah! This is the guy doing the 1KSons torsos! Thank you. I've been looking for these for ages!

No problem at all, the least that I can do is make that sure other people have the same opportunities that I have to spend money that they shouldn't on minis =)

TheDraconicLord wrote:

 Neconilis wrote:
Unless I'm mistaken, all of the alternative Sisters models are Svarog Miniatures.

http://svarogminiatures.com/

I had no idea about this store and in fact I already spotted some of the miniatures like the female "busty" comissar and the Mother Superior with the girl.

Well spotted, confirming what everyone else was saying

(And with this, I now have a brand new store where to spend some muneyz! )

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Ah! This is the guy doing the 1KSons torsos! Thank you. I've been looking for these for ages!

No they're recasts. The original maker was a Russian lady called Irina, who used to put batches of sets up on Ebay occasionally to fund her college tuition. Then I think she stopped needing the money, because they stopped being listed.

Well as long as someone's selling them...