giving casting a motor a shot

[Lownslow]

Great job and welcome to the wonderful world of casting. I wanted to share a couple of tips if you don't mind. Your use of clay is common practice and once you have submerged your parts halfway into the clay, press the clay tight around the part so that there is no gap or space between the clay and part. This will keep the chance for a seam line to a minimum. Also, use the end of small paint brush to press hemispherical indents into the clay before you pour your RTV. These indents will serve as mold alignment aids helping to hold the two mold halves in place while casting. Well, provided that you are doing 2-piece molds? One more thing is that you have the opportunity to break the parts down into sub-assemblies. The pulleys can now be separated from the belt before molding. The heads as well as the pan can be done as individual parts too. Here's a pic of the Chrysler 392 I do in 1/16th scale and you can see the number of parts that are separate pieces. Again, welcome to parts replication and have a great modeling adventure doing this.

thanks, i did the whole sub assembly thing to save on RTV and generally speed up the build i have a few modern engines up my sleeve i want to cast it would be awesome to cast a entire engine like that like the hudson engine

Edited July 10, 2012 by Lownslow

[LAone]

coming along great bro. keep on at it. i hope to come accross some of these...

hey, maybe if revell and others would get on the ball and make and sell engines like they do their kits, then this wouldnt happen right?? well until that day comes, ill do my business to those that do it for us.

[shucky]

whats all the blue stuff Frank?

[crazyjim]

Ted Sampley used to sell T-shirts with the image of the the Three Soldiers by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He did it for years and made some HUGE profits. The statue was copyrighted by Frederick Hart and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF). Ted was approached by the VVMF to either stop selling the shirts or pay the VVMF a royalty. Ted said no. The issue went to court. Ted lost his business, house, savings - everything - to pay the lawyer fees and debt to VVMF. Ted has since passed away.

I've been told that people can use copyrighted items as long as they're not making a profit on said copyrighted items.

I'm not making a judgement call here. Just presenting some facts as I know them.

[sjordan2]

Just because a kit is currently out of production, or the company is gone, that doesn't mean that it no longer has copyright protection. And whether the casting is produced in styrene, resin or cottage cheese, it doesn't make any difference. It's a copy and/or a counterfeit of someone else's property.

As long as you're not selling multiple copies or advertising such, I can't see any problem.

But for your information:

In general, anything copyrighted before 1923 is in the public domain.

Anything copyrighted since then until 1978 is eligible for renewal every 28 years.

Under the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, (this is the most current law, applying to anything copyrighted since 1978):

This is governed by statutory section 17 USC 302. According to this section, a work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or after January 1, 1978 is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's life, plus an additional 70 years after the author's death. In the case of "a joint work" prepared by two or more authors that was not a "work made for hire," the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author's death. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.

Most corporate products would probably be defined as works made for hire, and may have patent protection as well.

There is another copyright law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, that deals with electronic and online material, but that has different considerations, as does Trademark Law.

Edited July 11, 2012 by sjordan2

[sjordan2]

PS: It really doesn't matter if you're not selling anything for profit if it contains copyrighted material that you haven't cleared and licensed. Want to make and give away free Coca-Cola T-shirts? Get ready for the onslaught. It's unauthorized usage of intellectual property and will result in charges of copyright infringement, brand dilution, etc., etc. There are lots of examples like this and the for-profit VVMF shirts. After all, Coke makes money from licensing their trademark for usage by other companies, who pay them good money and hope to make a profit. If it's copied and given away free, it competes with those who have paid for the rights.

Most companies will send you a cease-and-desist letter first. Ted's woes resulted from having said "No" to the VVMF's contact.

(There ARE a limited number of tricky exemptions for certain uses; for example, Pepsi can do comparative advertising showing Coke products without their permission, BUT they have to give Coke's copyright and trademark notice just as Coke would print it.) Many fat books have been written about the subject. This is different from actually duplicating a company's product and comes under the weirder terms of trademark law.

In the end, any unauthorized usage of protected intellectual property can get you, even for casting one engine for your own use (though that's very, very unlilkely).

Edited July 11, 2012 by sjordan2

[crazyjim]

Ted was more of an acquaintance than a friend, Mike. Wouldn't matter anyway. I didn't like how he was trying to make money. He was a Vietnam Veteran and his father-in law was/is listed as POW/MIA. Ted was extremely active in the POW/MIA issue and other Veteran issues. More than once he was arrested for chaining himself to the White House fence in protest. I was on some of the protests with him but never went as far and didn't get arrested. Ted is also the person who blew the whistle on Blasie being buried knowingly in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

Ted's longtime partner in those sales booths near The Wall was Top Holland - as in sargeant major of the WHOLE US Army. Top has also passed away. Top lied about his age to join the Marines in WWII, got caught and discharged, came of age and joined the Army. That took him to the Korean War and then several tours of the Vietnam War.

[Lownslow]

whats all the blue stuff Frank?

smooth on RTV

[Fat Brian]

On the matter of copyrights, if a company fails to defend it's copyrighted materials over a given time it begins to be considered public domain. A local radio host began having a charity motorcycle ride to benefit Make a Wish and he called it "ride for the kids". After a few years another organization contacted him saying that they had been using and are the copyright holder of the phrase "ride for kids" and that his was too close to theirs. He had to change the name of his ride to not infringe on an existing copyright, the other organization said they didn't mean any harm and knew he was doing good work but that if they didn't make him stop using it that later if someone used it as a scam or something they wouldn't have a right to stop them since they hadn't defended their copyright against him.

About casting though, think about all of the companies that make parts for real cars, even body parts and they don't own the copyright. The car companies don't go after people so often that they may only have any standing if their logo is used. Look at comercials and movies, how many times to they black out the logos but are free to use the actual car.

[sjordan2]

I wish I had the skills to do casting, and I think it all gets down to specific cases about the morality of it. What if you just need some minor, missing spare parts? Not easy if you have a rare kit.

My example:

1. I have a 1/16 Rolls of a 1937 Phantom III. It comes with plastic wire wheels, which were seldom visible on the 1:1 car. Typically, it should have dish-style wheel covers over the wires. I need 6 sets (each wheel cover has 3 parts), for the running wheels and fender-mounted spares.

2. The 1/16 Rolls Phantom II Continental kit has exactly what I need, but only for 4 wheels. I can cover that with my parts car. But I need 2 more.

Revell of Germany has recently reissued the Phantom II with the parts I need. I contacted them to see if I could get the 2 sprues I needed. They said no, I'd have to buy the whole kit.

Well, I ain't going to spend $60 for two wheel covers, and I see nothing ethically wrong with copying the necessary parts (even though I don't know how to do it). After all, I bought their kit to begin with.

Just like anything else, it's a question of context.

Edited July 11, 2012 by sjordan2

[blubaja]

Looks good man. We're usually effed in the hobby all around. And we all try to get by the best we can with any means:)

[BKcustoms]

That turned out great! Sorry for not posting the pics you wanted, my camera wouldn't focus in on the molds at all.