Recasting kits.

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
21

Uh, yeah, but you’re overlooking that I didn’t run before I could walk. I sought the advice and tutelage of teachers and profesionals before making expensive errors. I asked for advice, and learned about “patience”.

“Everything worthwhile takes time”.–best advice I ever got. I still give it today.

Occasionally, one of my first or second-year guitar students will come to me and ask me if I know anywhere that they can record their own CD. Mind you, they’re still only learning, do not have anywhere near what could be called a reasonable “command” of the instrument, and they’re playing on $200.00 just-above-crap instruments.

And yet they want to spend $1,000 or so to record a CD when they barely know how to compose songs. Instead of spending that money (for kids who have little to begin with) on a CD that will embarrass them in two years, I advise them to spend their money on better equipment, and take the proper time to actually become a musician first before wasting that hard-earned money.

It’s a question of putting the cart before the horse. Smeagol wants to do *a full kit cast–*without ever having cast even so much as a jerry can before, or even knowing the stuff he needs to begin? Not real sage advice, in my view, to urge him forth with idealistic platitudes that are going to cost him a lot of money–which, as Hans has pointed out–we all know he doesn’t have, without trying to steer him down a more cost-effective and realistic path which will better inform him as to both his abilities, and the complexities of casting–and then he can better judge where he stands as far as his finances, his resolve, and his expectations.

Almost every one of my students who has taken my advice has returned to thank me when they finally could, and did, record a CD or song that they were proud to distribute.Though I doubt smeagol would be “embarrassed” of his efforts, without some expeimentation before attemp such a complex effort,he might well rue the day that he embarked on this endeavor with more wishful thinking than relevant wisdom.

But hey, it’s your choice, smeagol. I myself would personally content myself with having the kits in my possession, and know that I could just hang on to them until I get some confidence under my belt with regard to casting, and then I could always cast them in one or two years, if it even took that long?

22

woah, woah, woah, who ever said I was going to attempt doing the kit at my first go? you guys know me, and I that stupid? Of course im going to practce, there are alot of weapons and figure kits I’d like to have multiple copies of for hacking purposes, especially like that esci partisans kit. I also have a HUGE tub of junk and scrap for scratchbuilding that I could use, I’m in no way going to start off with this rare kit, what do I look like, a singer?

23

Good man, Steve! In that case, go slow, learn, and save those kits until you feel confident that you won’t screw up those rare gems in the pocess and waste a lot of cash!

24

Karl, I’m sorry to correct you again, but if you had paid better attention, you would have observed that I was indeed responding with sound advice for the typical beginner - which included picking up a book geared for the beginner, which would explain everything a beginner needs to know before setting out. (How exactly did you miss that?!) Further, I posted him a link to a (relatively) inexpensive starter set, which met his limited budget.(Again, how did you miss that?!?)

As Smeagol confirmed, I never expected he was going to attempt to cast an entire kit right off the bat - that would be an unrealistic expectation, and did not need to be mentioned.

Further, it is a shame that you brought only more discouragement, and offered him nothing in the way of helpful advice on how he can get started on his journey. Instead, right off the bat you tell him he’s “over his head”. Ouch. I would think a modeler of your exceptional skill would have more to say in the way of positive advice or encouragement.

25

Thank you for clarifying your intentions, Mark.

Back to the bench. [:D]

26

Anyhow, no matter how over my head I am doing something, it cant ever be worse then that day I got my hair caught in my dremel…

27

As far as finding someone goes, the guy whos selling it was commissioned to build these and recast a ton for someone as a dio (whoever comissioned was nuts) but they backed out, which is why hes selling the kits, though, he says hell be willing to cast me a bunch for cost of materials.

28

Why go the recasting route, these kits are finable on Ebay for reasonable prices:

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/MIXED-2-KITS-ACADEMY-HYDRALISK-MARINE-PLASTIC-KTS_W0QQitemZ190292199730QQihZ009QQcategoryZ1193QQcmdZViewItem

29

smeagol, I hate to tell you this, but if you are receiving any of these “recast” kits, then you are now in possession of stolen property. You could be arrested if this guy is investigated. It’s no different than buying “burned” CD’s, or bootlegged DVDs.

He brokek the law by recasting these kits. It doesn’t matter if he owned the kits before he cast them–by selling them as part of a diorama, he is technically breaking the law, and I suspect that possibly the buyer opted out when he mayhave realized that?

In nay case, if this guy is the “business” of recasting entire kits, I would give him a wide berth. If there is an investigation into him, you could wind up getting caught in the web as a recipient of stolen property.

30

Amen to that. The person who engaged him to recast them is complicit with the illegal act. All of the stuff he has is illegal. If you bought/have them, you are in possession of stolen (intellectual) property and if you recast them, you are still breaking the law.

I raised a rhetorical question about Infinity Shape’s Last of the Mohicans figure here. This is a great figure that disappeared when Infinity Shape suddenly went out of business. Of interest are comments from sculptors, such as Alan Ball, who makes a living creating masters.

31

then how do companies get away with only selling recast figures, alot of anime figure sits only sell recast, not always licensed at that.

Also, your link was to an auction thats over, and whatever ebay you use, thats not the Us one the Us one has 0

32

They are acting illegally, plain and simple.

The end result is the original company looses so much money, they go out of business. Then no new product becomes available.

Kind of like asking how did the mob go about extorting protection money from businesses in their “territories?” How do drug dealers go about selling controlled substances? How does any criminal get away with his/her illegal business? Many of these pirates are from places that refuse to enforce copyright law.

It’s unjustifiable, wrong, illegal and unethical.

33

Smeagol, if you KNOW that certain companies are selling recast–ILLEGALLY recast–figures, then I would urge you to NOT patronize them. You are essentially dealing with thieves.

These people are stealing from people who make their living by spending the time and effort to craft and sculpt these very figures that you love to build and own. If you buy stolen products, you are really cutting your own throat, because if you remove the profit motive from the people who make the original items,then you willbe quashing the incentive for people to make new ones. WHo wants to spend time and money to make something when they’re not going to reap their rightful profit from it? If you’re buying ANYTHING stolen in this surreptitious manner, you are not only breaking the law, you are hurting the very industry of the genre that you love.

How do people get away with it? Simple–criminals have a myriad of ways to disguise their activities. It IS possible that they share the profit somehow through some deal or licensing agreement, but if you’re suspicious of their products, you should enquire what the legitimacy of their products is before you buy.

When we went into Russia, we simply could not believe the amount of bootlegged material that people were setting up and selling outside our shows. Cheaply made garbage, but selling it for cheap, so people were buying it. There was no way to actually stop them because “everybody” was in on the take. SO we cut a deal with some of the biggest ones–we allowed them to sell inside the doors, and then took 50% of their profit. They sold a lot, and we at least got paid for their thieving of us. Not a perfect arrangement, but better than nothing.

It’s possible that these sites have some sort of arrangement of this type with the original sculptors, but not likely. The best thing you can do is to not patronize this type of illegal immoral behavior, and know that you are legitimately supporting the people who produce these models out of the same love with which you build them.

34

Well, the way the anime kits go, its a bit diffrent then other things, once the anime comes out, they make the resin garage kits, but onces the anime stops, unless they get specific requests, and in number, for the kit to be remade, it doesnt, and even sometimes requests dont get it remade, or the number is equal to the amount of requests, so one person wont be enough to fire up the molds.

Thats why you have alot of recast anime figure shops, to be honest.

I have purchased, once, a set of recast figures that wernt legal ones, and that is because after all my searching I could not find the kits anywhere online, except for the person who had the recasts (anime figures are hard to come buy after first run)

But we all konw your stance on buying bootleged stuff Karl

35

Enforcing copyright law is very difficult and expensive. Thieves know it and rip off people who do not have the capital (and I mean capital—the stuff Microsoft and other megacorporations still have, if they are even marginally well run) or the time and other resources necessary to catch them and prosecute a case against them. The little guy has three choices: prosecute and go out of business; don’t prosecute and maybe go out of business from lost profit; or come up with a new product that will pay the bills until it is also bootlegged.

It is perfectly legal to make a copy of most things for personal non-profit use, or for educational purposes. But if you are compensated for it, even only for the cost of making the copy, or you trade for it, or even for “good will,” you have crossed the line.

I’ve had my work stolen, once. Having physical property or money stolen from you is bad. It makes you angry, you feel violated. But when it’s your intellectual property, hell hath no fury to hold a pale candle to what you feel.

36

That’s called justification. Just because the only copy is illegal doesn’t make it any less vile, onerous and illegal to buy pirated copies. Back in the day, the nuns would have had a field day with that post!

Say your favorite music artist has chosen not to release live albums or videos of his concerts. Does that make it RIGHT for someone to sneak a camera in and record the performance and resell it? I think not.

Animes are hard to get after the first run? Too #@<&ing bad. Buying these pirated items is no different from walking into the LHS with a big overcoat and dropping models and supplies into hidden cavities. Would you do that even if you KNEW you wouldn’t get caught?

Time to wake up and smell the roses. You are engaged in criminal activity. In fact, you may have put yourself in some level of jeopardy, having posted on-line for the world to see that you have been engaged in violations of copyright law, like all those file sharing kids who thought they were doing nothing wrong by downloading all the “free” music.

The previous poster doing the studio scale model with copied parts is also treading the same thin ice as you, perhaps even farther out, since it sounds like a commercial venture. The original Star Wars, Battelstar Galactica, etc. special effects, were indeed made from model parts, but the parts were from original kits, not multiple illegal copies.

37

That’s stealing, Steven. Plain and simple, no way to justify it or make it “feel good”, even if it made you content that you satisfied your “need” for something that was technically “unavailable”.

Honestly, I jsut cannot fathom how you convince yourself that this is acceptabe behavior just because you wanted it soooo bad! [banghead][banghead][banghead][banghead]

ABSOLUTLEY.

Steven, it is NOT only “my feelings about downloading”. It has to do with my personal ethics and morals about theft; about stealing from people–no matter the circuitous avenues that you take to procure what you think you so deperately want or “need”. Doesn’t matter if it’s illegal downloading, slipping something into your pocket on the sly, or buying illegally recast or copied products. There’s no justification, no “degree” of wrong in it for my money.

You either see it as “wrong”, or you steal. Simple. [soapbox]

38

since your so vocal on the subject let me ask you this, if I have an entire band’s diskography over vinyl, casette, cd, and digital media is it wrong to download copies of the ones I have on non digital format, so I could listen to it on an iPod, or should I be tied to my turntable to listen to their music

39

If you illegally download the digital formats of that music then YES–IT IS STEALING.

The bands have to pay HEFTY FEES to get that music transfered to digital format I KNOW!!! They have to be re-mastered, and re-packeged as such. ALL THAT COSTS MONEY!!

If you want the CONVENIENCE of listening to it on an iPod, then YOU can buy a record player, or digitizing cassette desk–they do make them–to transfer those albums, cassettes, whatever–into digitized format.

That way, YOU have invested YOUR money into the convenience of making digital copies of them. It would be unethical and illegal to simply avail yourself of them for free when that band is paying THEIR money to give YOU the convenience of listening to them in a digital format!

Here’s some good advice to stick in your brain, and words to live by–“Nothing is free–and if it is, it’s probably ILLEGAL!”

40

Smeagol, you might really rate your own title “Vile” if you continue to partake in this activity and then try to justify it in your pathetic style. Has anyone on the forum actually supported your position? Does the good advice that you are receiving here from the guys mean anything to you? If you don’t like what you hear then just go ahead and continue in your shady dealings. I, for one don’t want to hear any of your whining on this site as you are posting from a jail cell. This is just pitiful.