Regarding Copyright. This doesn't seem to apply in Modelling Worlds. I was, upto a couple of years ago, involved with Casting small scale(1/72) Military models, figures and vehicles, Plagarism is rife. A good Master of a Vehicle will cost upwards of 150 pounds. Figures about 70 or so. Cost of a Master Mould in Silicone, another 50, Producing moulds in hot press silicone the same.That is for the silicone blank. The hot press machine will set you back 500 quid. Then there are the costs for the Centrifuge and oven also in the 3 to 4 hundred range. So there is a considerable cost just to get one figure on the market, The master is destroyed making the moulds, well the vehicle masters. So then to casting (Metal around 10 pounds a kilo and sales, packing, ads etc. All adds up! Then the punter sees 4 figures in a bag and complains at the price of a fiver! If the series or vehicle is a sucess then by the next show there will be near copies, or blatent copies by others. makes you spit! I once, just for fun, made some coathooks for my wifes dollshouses, included them in my next mould and we sold them to friends in the dollshouse scene. Within a year they were copied and sold under half a dozen brand names.
I still have all the machines, and some metal, but no one is making white metal bits anymore, all Resin and made in Poland or Czech Republic.
