Finds simple products which belong to a configurable, and have no base image. Then assigns the base image from the configurable to that simple product.

simple-of-configurable-apply-base-image.php

<?php
/**
 * Finds simple products which belong to a configurable, and have no base image.
 * Then assigns the base image from the configurable to that simple product.
 *
 * @category    FirstScribe
 * @package     FirstScribe_Shell
 * @author      Darren Felton
 */

require 'abstract.php';

class FirstScribe_Shell_SimpleOfConfigurableApplyBaseImage extends Mage_Shell_Abstract
{
    public function run()
    {
        /* @var $configurables Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Resource_Collection */
        /* @var $configurable  Mage_Catalog_Model_Product */
        /* @var $type          Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Type_Configurable */
        /* @var $simples       Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Resource_Collection */
        /* @var $simple        Mage_Catalog_Model_Product */

        ini_set('memory_limit', '512M');

        echo PHP_EOL;
        echo 'Fetching products...',PHP_EOL;

        $configurables = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection')
            ->addAttributeToFilter('type_id', 'configurable')
            ->addAttributeToSelect('image');

        foreach ($configurables as $configurable) {
            // If configurable this has no images, it won't help us anyway.
            if (false == $configurable->getData('image') || 'no_selection' == $configurable->getData('image')) {
                continue;
            }

            $type    = Mage::getModel('catalog/product_type_configurable')->setProduct($configurable);
            $simples = $type->getUsedProductCollection()->addAttributeToSelect('image');

            foreach ($simples as $simple) {
                if (false == $simple->getData('image') || 'no_selection' == $simple->getData('image')) {
                    $filename = Mage::getBaseDir('media').DS.'catalog'.DS.'product'.$configurable->getData('image');
                    if (file_exists($filename)) {
                        $simple->addImageToMediaGallery($filename, array('image','small_image','thumbnail'),false,false);
                        try {
                            $simple->save();
                            echo 'Image added to simple product, ID: ',$simple->getId(),PHP_EOL;
                        } catch (Exception $e) {
                            echo $e->getMessage(),PHP_EOL;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        echo 'SCRIPT COMPLETE',PHP_EOL,PHP_EOL;
    }
}

$shell = new FirstScribe_Shell_SimpleOfConfigurableApplyBaseImage ();
$shell->run();