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With more and more companies offering components/parts to make your armies unique or even more truer to the fluff, are we seeing the rise of a parallel, I don't know, universe?(so to speak) On the one hand we'll have armies that are straight out the box and on the other we'll have the full bells and whistles options. Companies such Scibor and Chapterhouse (and the many others) produce stuff that has found a very eager market and in that sense they are changing the way we build armies. So with the recent GW fumbles will this market cater more and more for the players who don't want to pay through the nose but want to create models more in touch with the fluff? At the moment I think the alternate builds are very much a niche market yet with increasing prices from you know who I can see this market growing vastly, after all it may well work out cheaper to buy bodies from the likes of ebay then add bits from the companies mentioned above than it is to buy and convert from direct.

I haven't really seen where buying all the alternative bits saves much money. The armies I've seen done tend to be more expensive.

Many people have converted armies in the past, it's just getting easier to do so now. I miss being able to order all the gw bitz. Especially buying by the pound down at games day.

Forgive but I've had a few sherberts this afternoon! The point I'm trying to make is that by offering these bits these companies inadvertantly seem to creating a seperate route for wargaming players of the well known sci/fi system! What I'm trying to say is that as more and more players want to individualise their armies but officially the parts for them to do so do not/will never exist. . As more players opt for non official parts more and more armies will no longer appear except in clubs/unofficial tournaments. I'm suggesting that there will be many spectacular armies that will never see the light of day because they will not be allowed officially, which is a pity. In a sense they are leaving a certain producer behind as they offer what fans want paving the way for a very different looking battlefield; this is a good thing.
Personally I think the unofficial parts are great and hope they have a long future as diversity is a great diving force for anything.

I thought GW's 'guideline' for official events was still based on the majority being GW parts s using 3rd party stuff is technically acceptable by their rules.

They probably won't let army overviews be a complete ad for a 3rd party source. Expect articles to say something like "...army made using parts available online..." with no manufacturers specified.

GW legal may not like these companies, but White Dwarf and the tournament crew may not really care. GW is not a monolithic entity. (And not completely evil.)