Regular readers of this blog will have no doubt seen the various posts concerning the Minifigs/BMC ships I have acquired and of my continuing search for some others to complete the navies of both Fezia and Rusland. Whilst I am happy to trawl through Ebay and visit toy fairs and the like it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps it would be easier to merely drop cast the models I require. This is virgin territory for me - both from a practical and legal perspective - and so I will need to carry out some serious research into the feasibility of such an approach.
I am quite sure that since the ranges are in fact no longer available - either from Minifigs or BMC - the issue of copyright may no longer be a consideration (although I would have to check this). Commercially available mould making kits for home casting are easily obtained from any of a variety of sources and so for the numbers I envisage casting this would not be a major expense - nor would the original models used for such moulds need to be sacrificed. Of the models I own the detail is sufficiently basic that some pretty good copies could be made and now that I have some suitably generic types to play with this suddenly becomes a very attractive proposition.
I have a selection of battleships (including some dreadnoughts), cruisers and destroyers; together with a couple of submarines and a merchant ship that could be 'moulded' and I could even attempt some minor conversions that could then in turn be 'moulded'. There are a number of firms on Ebay and on the net that sell 1/1200th fixtures and fittings - including various calibres of gun turret - so the possibility of dressing up a basic home cast hull into something unique is a compelling temptation.
I also have a further avenue to consider with this as well….;-)
4 comments:
As long as you modify the model that you use as master then my understanding is that you're OK... in effect the ship prior to moulding is your "dolly" - modifications are yours and make the ship 'unique' to you and OK for moulding....
Hi Steve,
That was my thinking entirely - I am not sure about the legalities but fortunately all the models I have are, without exception, missing their masts - these were cast on the Minifigs models and were wire poles on the BMC ships.
I am looking into this quite seriously and am hopeful it will help to solve a number of supply issues!
All the best,
DC
Great idea, David. Look forward to seeing new squadrons of your creations.
I'm no lawyer but the copyright issue seems simple enough. BMC ? Out of business for nearly 100 years. Consider it like old, copyright expired books distributed for free download on the internet. Minifigs ? They blatantly copied the BMC designs. Nobody will be coming after you about this, particularly if the models are just for personal use.
Regards,
Steve
Hi Steve,
The more I think about it the more sense it makes - it will certainly have to one for the research and development pile!
All the best,
DC
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