Small Scale Military Headquarters

"NEW 1:32 Figures and Tanks created by the NEW 3D printer"

This is it, the revolution is upon us! READ THIS and you SHOULD be VERY EXCITED!!

By now, we have all watched the impressive demonstration videos on YouTube, for the new 3D printers. I was inspired by what I saw, so I decided to pay a visit to my local dealer here in town.
With me, I brought some 1/72 scale figures, some assembled 1/35 Dragon fig. kits and a 1/35 " JS II tank".
If I was ever going to spend $25000 on one of those printers, naturally I would want to see some good demonstrations and score some free new toys while I'm at it!
I explained to the technician my desire to SCAN, then on the computer, UPSCALE the smaller kits into highly detailed 1:32 scale models. The rep. was amused by my passion and enthusiastically excepted my challenge, for a small fee.
The NEW 1:32 figure and tank prototypes will be ready by next week, if everything turns out right, I will buy one of these printers and start taking private orders for all the dream tanks and figure sets you ever wanted, in what ever scale you desired.

"The PLASTIC GENERAL"

While I share your enthusiasm plastic general, may I offer one word of caution...copyright. If you're making exact copies of another companies products without their permission and selling them for a profit, you're playing with fire should they find out and decide to take legal action against you personally.

If you're going to spend that kind of money on a scanner, make sure you spend a little more and talk to a good copyright lawyer about what you can and can't do. It could save you a huge headache later on. That said, good luck!

pics please when available

re: copyright issues

My thought was he might be planning to downsize some of his own figure sculpts for this project.

At least I hope so, as I like his work and would like to have some myself but I don't collect 1/18.

But also, if he copies a tank or other vehicle, how would a company know if it was their model? A Tiger is a Tiger whether made by Dragon, 21C, FOV or Bandai.

The FIRST thing we do is Kill all the lawyers!!!

This copyright stuff can be tricky. Someone said a Tiger is a Tiger. Yes they are, only in the real world. But a FOV Tiger is not a 21st Tiger. Neither model came from the same mold machine and neither model are duplicates of the real Tiger. They are representations of the Tiger. Being a representation, therefore each model by each company is a work of art...if you want to call it that. Each model is a product of artistic and commercial output, therefore by law is copyrightable. There are small features of each companies' competing models that make each one distinguishable from the competitions'. We may think it's an inaccuracy in the mold. The legal and commercial world don't care. They call that intellectual property.

Therefore making an exact cast of some company's model for one's own gain then that is illegal.

A (real world) tank or truck or airplane's shape is not copyrightable (caveat below). Therefore making a mold even if it's relatively very close to someone else's, but with differences, even small ones, would be more likely construed as "producing one's own representation" of said plane, tank, truck, car, etc. This would be closer to legally permissible.

Last note: if one is wanting to produce a 747 no matter what method , one is really in deep waters as the 747 is the only vehicle whose visible shape, features, and dimensions are completely copyrighted and trademarked. Therefore one cannot make even a representation of the model without a Boeing license. A company could make a P-51 toy and call it "WWII Fighter" on the packaging and no mention of "P-51" or "Mustang" anywhere and not incur the ire of Boeing. But if they produce a 747 toy and merely call it "big jet" on the packaging, and Boeing finds out, uh oh!!

FIRST, I must say, my intention is NOT to mass produce, but just too create re-scaled copies for my 1:32, starved friends, foes and allies, from sites like this one.

SECOND, I am a full time artist, so when I build a 1:35 scale Dragon figure kit, I never follow the instructions. I almost always create a compleatly different figure, far better than the ones recomended by the manufacturior. (spellcheck is down)

Third, how many nurds out there could possably want a Germ. "MAUS" in 1:32?
I just want to do it for the LOVE of the hobby.

"The PLASTIC GENERAL"