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I have been wondering, and forgive me if this is the imporper place to ask, if it would be legal for a person to take games workshop bases and then add toppings. For instance adding greenstuff to them and making them decorated with cobblestone and then making a mold and then casting copies of the bases to sell. Part of me thinks it would be legal because it's kind of like takign a peice of wood and reshaping it for resale but then another part of me thinks that it might be illegal because of the shape of the bases. Just curious if anyone knows. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.

The humble slotta base is not copyright able however with all things legal it's best to never give them a chance to sue you. If you have the skill to sculpt bases people will want to buy you should have the skill to create base blanks to work from yourself.

Technically GW bases are copyrighted... But if you did use a GW base as a blank and sculpt on it and casted it as a solid base, the chances anyone would ever know is almost none...

But it is easy enough to simply use an appropriated-sized 'blank' without a copyright attached to protect yourself. While the result may be indistinguishable, the process of using your own blank 25mm base opposed to using a GW 25mm base could get you in trouble in a commercial way.

Now if you are going past bases, like sholderpads, torso and so on... don't do it. You would be better making blanks and starting from scratch or find someone who makes copyright free blanks.

Yeah ill just make my own bases. I was hoping it was safe to be lazy for once.

Did I hear production of bases with cobblestone? add a few gears, maybe some Victorian gas lights strewn about, and you've got your first customer right here.

Forgive me but, how is it possible for GW to claim any control whatsoever over the round base? You can buy generic, non-GW produced ones from multiple places on the web, so frankly if you filled in the cavity under the base such that their unenforceable pronouncement of copyright is no longer visible, how is anyone going to tell that you used a GW base over a generic one?

Don't reinforce GW Legal's delusions of grandeur, obey copyright and trademark proclamations only when they are sound and enforceable.

+1.

There was a legal case against Grenadier back in the 90s about their use of the slotta bases that GW claimed sole ownership rights to.

GW would claim to own the formula for oxygen if they thought they had a chance of getting away with it.

People make and sell bases like your talking about all the time, I'd consult a lawyer but my guess is your fine.