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Assuming this is the right place as it's kind of a rules question more than anything...

For the last.. probably 4-5 years since roughly 6 months after the tau came out, I've been toying with the idea of making a Tau force comprising of lots of battlesuits, made from 1/144 scale gundam kits.

Ideally this would be done using Strikes from Gundam Seed ( standard XV8s using regular strikes / strike aile, heavies using either strike launcher / blitz or something for, maybe strike freedom or something for commander etc) which are about 4" tall.

Now the question is, if based with GW bases and kitted out with all the correct wargear aswell (using the official GW bits) and painted up properly - how likely are these to be allowed in-store for use?

( Basically, if there's ultimately no-chance there's little point in me bothering, at least with the proper weapons and gear side, I'll just use the weapons in the gundam kits for home-use )

- I will add that when I put together my Tau I'll be doing it properly anyway, and building a gundam-battlesuit to go alongside the actual battlesuit.

It would really depend on the store.

They probably wouldn't be allowed in most GW stores. Independants would be entirely up to the owner. I suspect a lot would have no problem with them.

As long as all weapons are wysiwig, sure why not. Otherwise it becomes a huge mess and one of "those" armies that look completely unlegit and annoying to play. If you're going for a total conversion army, there's a very fine line between awesomely acceptable and dreadfully uncouth.
I do believe GW now has a 100% GW parts or GTFO policy. I still find it hard to believe that they'll actually boot you out of the store for fielding non-100% GW models.

The general rule (in my experience) is at least 50% of the model must be GW product, and through basing and wysiwyging the models I'm hoping to bring it up to that.

Though in a flash of inspiration (and cheapness)
- What if I bought 1 Strike, then make press-molds off its sprue and make the suits out of greenstuff?

Whole things now GW product, or is this taking the piss

Ovion wrote:Though in a flash of inspiration (and cheapness)
- What if I bought 1 Strike, then make press-molds off its sprue and make the suits out of greenstuff?

Then (at least in most western countries) you would be breaking the law...

true..

Being solely for personal use, would it be 'covered' under the fair dealing policies of copyright?

Though maybe sculpting my own gundamesque creation then remouldign that might be better...

I like the using Greenstuff idea as it side-steps the ability to use in store issue.

insaniak wrote:

Ovion wrote:Though in a flash of inspiration (and cheapness)
- What if I bought 1 Strike, then make press-molds off its sprue and make the suits out of greenstuff?

Then (at least in most western countries) you would be breaking the law...

But feel free to break the law..... I do. As well as several others that have been pointed out (and pictures removed) lately.
For future posts.... it would probably be best not to even MENTION press-molding or reproducing anything. There will immediatly be amature law students alerting mods and crying.

However, I would mold away.... this would pass in my store. 'cept for ard' boyz. We unfortunatly allow coke-can pods lol.

using press moulds on your own stuff shouldnt be an issue though... decisions decisions etc

I say go "all out" and make silicon xxxxx and resin xxxxxx of any of Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx's products. I do. Cant say Ive ever sold any of them... Ive given a few away.
I have sure saved ALOT of money though.

Ovion wrote:Being solely for personal use, would it be 'covered' under the fair dealing policies of copyright?

No. For two reasons: the first being that Fair Use allows for limited copying for certain purposess or reasons, and 'So I don't have to buy more of them' is not one of those purposes or reasons. And secondly because the 'Fair Use' clause that gets bandied about on the net is solely a US thing.

Going by the country flag by your posting ID, you're in the UK. And the Uk doesn't have a Fair Use clause. UK copyright law allows for limited copying of certain things for educational purposes only.

Whether t's for personal use or not only makes a difference to the applicable damages.

[/armchair IP lawyer]