Each single, purchased, 100% unit or 'jack = TWO playable ones at 50% each... with a little elbow grease and greenstuff.
Tourney legal but financially immoral?
I think these conversions require enough effort that it's not going to catch on enough to become a problem for PP. And if you're making the poses dynamic and varied it'll be cool from a hobby standpoint and therefore good for the game as a whole.
I have a naïve question. Is technology available/ affordable to self-SCAN a post-market model, to create a file that can then be used for self-3D printing? Or do all pirate files still need a pirate 3D sculptor on some level?
I'm still not clear how the forgeries come to be. (Sorry if I missed it, and I see that gobber described this some. Do forgers have uber scanners or in-house sculptors cleaning up poor scans or something?)
I don't think 3d scanning models for printing is a thing that's actually happening yet on any scale but I certainly could be wrong. From some quick research 3d scanners are in the $500-$1000 range, so the same as a higher end printer.
Most forgers to my knowledge are instead recasters who make their molds off the original models then make resin copies, that's very different from 3d printers which almost invariably uses a 3d modeler at some point. PP's miniature design process is basically a combination of the two: 3d sculpt a model in CAD, print initial versions, then recast the result for cheaper mass production.
Unlike star wars/40k which have a ton of video game models to draw on, warmachine stuff is pretty rare which makes 3d modeling skill a significant barrier to entry (most of the 40k/starwars stuff is still done by hand though). For the moment this thing is the lone .stl file of any quality on thingiverse:
It's also worth noting that most home 3d printers are filament which will have trouble making anything smaller than a huge base at the resolution we expect of miniatures. SLA printers are starting to come down in price, but printing small based models at home really isn't common yet; most stuff of that level is done through shapeways. A small based model on shapeways is ~$12 so it's mostly limited to customs/conversion bits. In five to ten years I could see home 3d printed miniatures becoming more of a thing, but for now it's mostly taking over the terrain world. There are some incredibly talented designers on shapeways though; legion's only been out for 2 months and this guy already made these rogue 1 customs:
Speaking of, the shapeways 3d printing service is itself is in a questionable spot legally as it's the primary entity profiting off of the sale of the above custom models, but it doesn't upload them itself.
Thanks for the education, gobber! Looks like a few years before the shit hits the fan regarding "Napster-ed" models. (I'm personally interested in one day being able to digitally re-scale certain bits that I think are too big or too small.)
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Thanks for the education, gobber! Looks like a few years before the shit hits the fan regarding "Napster-ed" models. (I'm personally interested in one day being able to digitally re-scale certain bits that I think are too big or too small.)
I love the idea of making my own custom minis and bits for RPG’s and narratives.
That's an awful lot of text attempting to refute my position, which mostly amounts to "it depends".
Scenario 1: Someone making 60 to 70k a year (just to throw a number out there) with a FLGS within driving distance that stocks PP products. In this case I believe buying pirated products is a Dick move.
Scenario 2: Someone making less than ten dollars a day, in a country with zero market penetration from PP, buying forgeries. Is it wrong? sure I guess... question mark??? But should I care? Should anyone really?.... meh?
can't really bring myself to feel the indignation to be honest, and I'm actually someone that invested hours of my own time for PPs benefit.
Scenario 2: Someone making less than ten dollars a day, in a country with zero market penetration from PP, buying forgeries. Is it wrong? sure I guess... question mark??? But should I care? Should anyone really?.... meh?
For many of those countries, the IPs from America and the UK don't always hold a lot of sway in their copyright courts, which makes its illegality a non-point.
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Ganso makes an interesting point regarding local consumption of pirated IP in locations with no PP market. Unfortunately, there's no way of keeping those products in house, so to speak.
However, like Macdaddy said, I think there could be a legitimate market for models that are specifically for RPG use, using modified CAD files of existing IP. In fact, I'd love to purchase a wide variety of them for that purpose. Imagine an old warjack resized to a higher scale, alternate poses, or even models from the RPG that aren't currently supported.
Rescaling models sounds really fun. I remember the old Inquisitor models. Having bigger everything on the table sounds like a truly fun and unique addition to a gaming group.
In the case of models being pirated in a location with no PP market, it is genuinely is a victimless crime and I'd be very hard-pressed to judge anyone for committing it.
In my humble opinion if i was PP i would not personally go after recasters. Its an expensive hobby with an ever changing meta and id personally just like to assume the position of "if you have the money support the company, but I'd rather you buy recasts if your financial situation is bad enough"
But PP is fully within their rights to restrict recasts from tournaments they host and to go after the recasters. End of the day thats their right and i dont begrudge them thay.
I think the issue will become far more significant in future as 3d printers become more and more accessible - at what point do game developers like pp and gw lose the ability to enforce their IP when any average joe can print an army or buy a very cheap but high quality recast. I think community good will at this point is required to keep a company alive
In my humble opinion if i was PP i would not personally go after recasters. Its an expensive hobby with an ever changing meta and id personally just like to assume the position of "if you have the money support the company, but I'd rather you buy recasts if your financial situation is bad enough"
But PP is fully within their rights to restrict recasts from tournaments they host and to go after the recasters. End of the day thats their right and i dont begrudge them thay.
I think the issue will become far more significant in future as 3d printers become more and more accessible - at what point do game developers like pp and gw lose the ability to enforce their IP when any average joe can print an army or buy a very cheap but high quality recast. I think community good will at this point is required to keep a company alive
At that point it may be possible/likely that the manufacturers themselves will be printing high res models and thus be cheaper. They will probably still charge some part for development of the IP, but many supporters of the hobby will most likely be willing to pay that.