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Been playing 40k since 3rd edition launch, but lately with family and hard times I have found myself very low on cash.  I recently saw a video about how to make molds with greenstuff legos and some models to copy.  Is it wrong that I want to start a deathwing army but dont want to pay 50 bucks for 5 terminators?  Also has anyone actually had good results with this in the first place, or would they turn out so crappy it wouldnt even be worth my trouble.  I really want to try this, but it feels kind of like stealing from a company I really like.

As long as you don't sell them to others then I don't see a problem in it. You are pulling a profit off of them, so it's really not stealing.

The first rule is don't talk about fight club. It is a hotly debated subject and a grey area, I recommend not mentioning this any further, and possible deleting you post to prevent a flame war.

Without getting into the morality side of things... other than saying I'd disagree with doing that.

If you haven't done any molding work before, you're just going to get yourself frustrated, make a hell of a mess, and probably spend more than the box of terminators in the process. It takes a bit of practice to reliably make the molds to get a good result, and most likely you will have a lesser quality product.

It's not hard to do once you're familiar with the process, but it does take some experience to get the techniques right. And resin is a big pain in the ass to work with compared to styrene plastic.

-Hans

It is not grey at all, it is illegal.

Simply put, usually you can copy a book or CD or whatever for personal use, since one person can only use 1 of those things.

But since you need an army of miniatures, and since they are GWs intellectual property, no you may not copy them without their permission (which will never come).

no I'm sure it's not illegel being for personal use, the moment you start selling them it is though. only problem is, buying the equipment to make the molds will be expencive and you won't get as good a quality model. I've got a friend whos done a model making course and it can be done, but as he said it takes practice and your bound to get some air pockets. so I think making entire armys this way might not be a great idea molding odd extra parts could come in handy for converting your models. at the moment I'm planning to do a mold of some old oop gorkamorka basses simply because you can't buy them from gw anymore.

What we see here is a European/US divide. KK is right in the US. Making copies of models is copyright infringement. The statutory damages and even criminal sanctions available in some cases are frightentng. LB may be right in Europe, but that's outside my direct knowledge.

GW appears to sanction some copying (e.g., greenstuff molds) as part of converting, but casting up terminators to save buying them? Any time you are "saving money", worry.

If the issue is money, look at some lower cost alternatives.

www.megaminis.com has sets of $1 fantasy figures. Lines like Void have some very good SF figures that could rep nearly any army you want. I even did an IG army using EM4s plastic troopers.

Just take a jaunt down to Mexico for a few days and do it there.

How many terminators can you need? Just work an extra couple shifts and buy the damn things.

Mmmm, importing counterfeit goods.

I agree with your second point.

Just a warning to all you would-be counterfeiters:  Copying miniatures, even for your own use, is theft.  Flat-out larceny.

To repeat, IT'S ILLEGAL.  Don't do it, don't advocate it, don't even try to make it sound like it's OK.  It doesn't matter that you're not reselling the material, it's still illegal copying.

I appreciate all those in the thread who spoke out against it;  good job, folks.