The 'Cloister Gardens' terrain piece from Infinite Dimensions Games

Hello everyone and welcome to another review, part of my long-running campaign to provide documentation and guidance for the best (and worst) out there for the WWII wargamer, and fill a bit of a hole that I wish had existed when I started out printing mysel

Today's review looks at Infinite Dimensions Games, a design group mostly focused on terrain pieces with a fantasy/medieval vibe to them. They run their own storefront site, as well as operating a page through MyMiniFactory. On MMF they also have a Tribes for those who like a steady stream of terrain, and have crowdfunded several past projects through Kickstarter.

No review models were provided or used for this review.

Printing

A road piece heading over a drainage pipe

Test prints were done either on on a Prusa MK4S FDM machine, with a .4mm HF nozzle, or else on a Prusa MK3S+, using a .6mm nozzle. In both cases, Prusa Slicer to prepare the models, and where necessary supports were generated using the auto-placement, with manual review, and organic support style. Layer heights were a mix of .4mm, .2mm, or variable height at 50%. The prints were done using a mixture of Overture PLA, Prusament, and Hatchbox.

The Cloister Gardens in its constituent printed pieces. A very easy print to do.

With the Infinite Dimensions pieces, I ran into very few issues with printing. Models are designed with the clear intention of easy FDM printing, and for the most part, the execution of this was well done. Some models where there are obvious overhangs or large bridging, such as in several of the pieces for the Church, come with presupports included, which snap off very easily, and help to ensure a good, clean print, and the vast majority of the time, models are definitely designed with an eye to mitigate need for supports in how bringing and overhangs are balanced or else avoided.

Examples of pre-supports on a roof section from the church

But (obviously a caveat was coming), there are some exceptions. Documentation for most models clearly states that supports are not needed for printing, or even that a model is presupported for FDM printing, but this is false on two counts. In the first, some models which are clearly labeled as not needing supports in fact do. I had several cases where there was an obvious island or overhang, and a few more where I was too suspicious so decided best to avoid the risk. Supports were easy to place, and easily solved the issue, but in a few test prints to back up my judgement, it was quite obvious that the piece will not print without them. Additionally, while some pieces billed as pre-supported for FDM printing do have supports, they seem to be done with resin style tree supports, and based on past tests with this, I'm quite doubtful that these supports will work better than autogenerated organic supports (they also provide resin-optimized prints, some with explicitly resin presupports, but I printed everything here FDM).

Two prints of the hedgerows. Top is unsupported, bottom with my supports added. Despite the documentation saying they aren't needed, this WILL NOT PRINT CORRECTLY without supports. I don't understand why they claim otherwise, as it is pretty obvious, and detracts from otherwise great designs

The sum of it is that I'm not sure what is going on with their support work sometimes, and it is definitely a disappointing mark for those who might be overly trusting in following directions, but as long as you use a little of your own judgement on support needs, these print just fine.

Models

A section of road connected and painted up. I've been using these for ages and love them.

I've been using Infinite Dimensions terrain for quite some time, and I keep going back to them when new stuff becomes available because put as plainly as possible, I fucking love their stuff. Or more specifically, I love their modular terrain. It is far and away the top selling point for me, and what ensures I keep an eye on their new releases to see what I can add to my collection.

Some finished river pieces as well. Love those too!

Why? Those who have read past reviews of terrain by me will know I have a strong preference for things like roads and walls which interlock with some mechanism to keep them secure, and Infinite Dimensions is my gold standard. They have their own system which they for roads they call 'Battlelock', and walls 'Battle Grip', and it is simple the best one I've come across. Because it is integrated into the pieces, it is ten-times easier to deal with than OpenLock, but just as versatile. I know that some people prefer their roads and walls to just be loose on the board, since it can make setup quicker, and for roads/rivers it allows them to lay flatter, but if you're like me and want connected pieces, there are worth a look, and then another one.

Underside view of the locking system used by the roads, rivers, and scaffolding.

To be sure, not everything they make uses the system. While the roads, rivers, and walls do, their hedgerows just sit loose, which makes me a little sad, but I also realize it just can't integrate easily into that design. And then looking to their city-scape terrain tiles, this actually works both ways. The 6"x6", or 3"x3" tiles can be arrayed loosely on the table or you can use a scaffolding system that they fit on top of to help keep them secure and in place. Both options work just fine, but I can say from experience the scaffolding system is great (I have basically a table's worth at this point), and also pretty easy to customize with digitally kitbashed pieces.

A section of city tiles placed on the scaffolding pieces. The edges can be covered up with the end pieces seen at the top.

Scaffolding pieces without the city tiles on top.

Their buildings also are quite well designed, generally printing with removable roofs and floors, where applicable, and a simple peg & hole system to keep the levels nice and secure. Doors are usually designed to pivot using the 'filament in a hole' style, and buildings which are too large to print each floor in a single piece, such are broken up into multiple parts which assemble very easily and without any issues that I've found.

The Church broken down into all of its various printable pieces. Note the pegs protruding at point, which help make for very easy assembly.

From an aesthetic perspective, Infinite Dimensions goes for a slightly cartoonish style, which works very well with heroic style figures. For stuff like the basic terrain - roads, rivers, walls - this is not really noticeable. These are pieces which are essentially 'timeless' and really just work however, but unfortunately for the buildings it means that even those which are intended to be more historical than pure fantasy often look like they will be out of place even if you are putting together a board in the absolute most provincial backwater in all of France. At the end of the day, there is a reason I've been raving about the roads, and why I only did one actual test print of a building, because so many of their buildings just don't feel right for World War II

The Church in assembled form. It can work just about anywhere, but unfortunately that isn't the case for many of their buildings.

Selection

Several pieces of the modular wall assembled together.

As such, the selection from Infinite Dimensions can in some ways feel limited. If you are really focused on historical gaming, they are going to be a great stop for the landscape itself. They have rivers, they have walls, they have city tiles, and they have more varieties of roads than you can shake a stick at, with both nice old country stone roads as well as churned muddy tracts, and a number of pieces which go beyond simply straight, curved, and crossroads. Some of the larger terrain pieces are also quite versatile, such as the Cloister Gardens which I picked up and intend to use as the centerpiece of a city board to represent a downtown park.

A graveyard piece which is also one of the more timeless (although 'European') files available from Infinite Dimensions.

There is also a good amount of small scatter terrain, some of which will be well suited, such as the graveyard pieces which I feel are generic enough to fit where needed, but others where YMMV based on what you are looking for. Either way though, certainly it can be said they are well done.

Several examples of pieces of scatter terrain.

But as noted, if you are looking for buildings, that is only more emphatically a YMMV situation. Some of the pieces, like the church I printed from their 'Wightwood Abbey' collection, are going to be very usable for historical gaming, at least as long as you're going for 'vaguely somewhere in Northwest/Central Europe' (nominally it is fantasy, lacking any explicitly Christian iconography, but kitbashing a cross for the spire is minor), but that just can't be said for so many of their buildings, or similar. Something like 'The Great Torbridge' looks awesome as hell, and if I ever start doing fantasy stuff, I'll nab that in a heartbeat, but it just won't feel right for a historical board, and nor either will smaller buildings they have, such as 'The Widows Manor' or 'The Pilgrim's Bakery'. The style they go for is great, and striking, but not for WWII. They have dozens of buildings in their catalog, but only a small slice are going to find usage here.

Rural stone road piece alone side a piece from the muddy road set.

Conclusions

Several assembled pieces of the low stone wall modular set.

Infinite Dimensions is ultimately a mixed bag, but more based on circumstances than on any real fault of their own. They have a large catalog print files, and they have a really clear aesthetic vision that is well executed, and broadly I find to look very nice, and be executed into solid prints. Their designs for modular pieces in particular stand out for me and are a head above basically any of the competition out there as far as I'm concerned. This isn't to say it is perfect, especially with regards to their poor approach to pre-supported files and claims about when supports are or aren't needed, but even with that caveat I would still call these great prints, and a fault that is entirely mitigated with a careful approach to doing ones own supports.

Unassembled wall segments showing off the slot system used for modular walls.

As such, the only real detriment with it comes to Infinite Dimensions is just that I'm writing this review for World War II gaming, not terrain printing in general. It significantly curtails what of theirs is actually usable or otherwise worth looking at. That isn't their fault, and if anything, I think it in some ways helps to emphasize just how good the stuff which is applicable nevertheless happens to be, since I'm sitting here singing their praises all the same. If they ever take a turn towards explicitly World War II themed designs, you can bet I'll be first in line.

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If you like these reviews and want to help me keep doing them, you can toss a buck via Ko-Fi page and a Buymecoffee page. I promise to waste it either on stls, or my crippling drug addiction, and nothing else. And a big thanks to a few folks who already have, and helped make these reviews possible!

For Previous Reviews and other 3D printing topics related to WWII gaming, head over to r/PrintedWWII

Also be sure to check out:

• The Printed Vehicles Reference Guide
• The Printed Infantry Reference Guide

House model from the 'Operation Carentan' Kickstarter campaign

Hello everyone and welcome to another review, part of my long-running campaign to provide documentation and guidance for the best (and worst) out there for the WWII wargamer, and fill a bit of a hole that I wish had existed when I started out printing myself

Today's review is on the 'Operation Carentan' Kickstarter campaign that is currently running from nerrdworx. They have several previous projects, but I believe this is their first foray into World War II. In addition to their Kickstarter campaign, they also run an etsy store with both physical models and stl files available.

I was provided with advance copies of a portion of the campaign for the purpose of review.

Printing

Heavily damaged building model

Test prints were done on a Prusa MK4S FDM machine, using Prusa Slicer to prepare the models. A .4mm HF nozzle was used for all prints, and using either .2 or variable height at 50%. All test prints were done using Overture PLA.

Telephone pole prints in three parts and requires no supports.

Uniformly, these prints were top-notch when it comes to ease of printing. At no point were supports needed, as everything is designed with the clear intention of FDM optimized printing. Overhangs are minimized or done at enough gradation to easily handle, models always have at least one nice big flat surface for the build plate, and where supports might otherwise be needed, the models are broken into multiple pieces to moot the issue. If I had anything negative to say, its that the roofs could save a bit of filament by having some space on the underside. I printed two, one with the default file, and one with a negative space added in the slicer to hollow the underside and it printed just as easily, but saved some time and PLA.

Right is the original file; Left is with a negative spaced added. It printed just as easily, without supports, but an hour quicker and with over 15 meters less material. If you're comfortable doing so, it is an easy modification.

The only other thing I would note is just an observation, that some of the files are pretty big and complex, and in one case the slicer took several minutes to actually finish processing and spit out the g-code! That isn't a knock on the files but really just a caution not to think that the program froze.

Models

Breakdown of the various pieces to the house. The stairs has probably the most ambitious overhand of any part to print and still had no problems.

The core files of the campaign are the houses, and they are all very well designed, with removable floors and roofs. The modularity is done with a peg & hole type system, and well executed at that, as none of the house files I printed required any trimming or filing of the parts to ensure a good fit. Everything sits well and but not overly tight so as to make removal frustrating. The designs are done with a good amount of detail, balanced of course for the exigencies of FDM printing, with the result being some really nice looking terrain pieces.

Lightly damaged model which took a good rake of machine gun fire, it looks.

For the roofs, the chimney pieces print separate, presumably to allow the decision of whether to include and where to place (which is useful if you are printing multiple copies to add variety). The houses are done with interior detailing as well, and additional pieces such as the fireplace and stairwells are included as separate parts which can be added in. This does lead to one of the few things I would note which some could take as a negative, as the stairwells mean there is an opening in the floors for the upper story, so if you don't want to include the stairs, there is still that hole. Filling it in is a pretty straight-forward process even for a fairly beginner printer, so I wouldn't flag it as a meaningful issue, but alt-versions without the hole would probably be appreciated by some.

A road tile from the campaign. Sidewalk is slightly raised compared to the road.

For the furniture and scatter pieces, these likewise are done with a good level of detail in a way balanced nicely for FDM optimization. Smaller parts are done with enough thickness to feel nice and solid, but not overdone to the point that they feel wrongly bulky. The most central terrain pieces outside of the buildings in helping to flesh out the feel of a full board though are the modular walls and modular streets. For the streets, as they are intended to be all seated together, the lack of any sort of connection system seems fine, but for the walls, I do wish there was something to keep them a little more connected, whether something like OpenLock or some sort of custom attachment system on the pieces. At the end of the day, I know that is more a matter of personal preference, so not a negative on the pieces, but it is something I generally look for in a wall system since I find it too easy to nudge them around or knock them over otherwise. As such this is definitely just a YMMV matter than anything I would knock on the campaign for.

Two pieces from the modular walls. Well sculpted, but personally I prefer having a locking mechanism, but that isn't universal.

Selection

Undamaged and heavily damaged models side by side.

The core files of the campaign bring to the table four different house designs, with each one provided in three variations, with a 'normal' version, one which shows battle damage but nevertheless remains intact, and finally a version with more extensive damage to the point of partial destruction. In practical terms, this gives a total of 12 distinct models for the core campaign files, although some of them will feel like retreads as to populate a full table will likely mean some repeated buildings. Some extra milage can of course be gained by mirroring the two non-symmetrical buildings, and since the floors and roof pieces are modular, you can have single or multi-story buildings using them. Still though, the limited number of really unique buildings might stick out for some in regards to the campaign, especially given the price point which is higher than most campaigns I've seen in the past. (Ed. The campaign had a small price cut which I think puts it in a much more appropriate price point).

Although only four base models exist, the modularity does allow extra (or fewer) floors to be added quite easily to add more variety to your board.

That said, there are obvious pluses of this approach though in that it is great for those who enjoy having a dynamic table which changes during the battle. I always love being able to swap out a full building for a ruined version in the end of its destruction during the fight, and having the multiple variations to print makes that incredibly easy. And for those even more anal retentive, the lightly damaged buildings even can swap in after a turn or two of combat! As such, it is an approach looking at depth rather than breadth with some will surely appreciate.

Furnishing pieces for a house

The stretch goals also help to flesh out the rest of a potential Carentan board, with the walls and city streets already unlocked, as well as some additional small structures and scatter terrain to add additional flavor, and then some furniture bits which can be used to fill the building interiors, or else some additional detritus for the streets. And although not part of the printed files, a small add-on is offered for physical posters.

Telephone pole all assembled.

Conclusion

A few examples of scatter terrain include an oil barrel and a large wire spool.

The Operation Carentan campaign brings some really well designed buildings to the table (figuratively and literally!), with good detailing and FDM optimized files which should be a breeze to print for even the most confused neophytes out there. These are further supplemented by walls, roads, furnishings, and scatter terrain. They are clearly the product of designers who know what makes for a good print, and who have put in the effort to ensure they are delivering on that. The only meaningful issue for me then ends up just being the limitations in selection and how that is reflected in the price-point of the campaign. To be sure, a bit of a premium is certainly worth ensuring a quality print, so that is only a blemish on some really quality stuff, and for anyone seeking to fill out a table set in Northern France, these are definitely worth a look!

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If you like these reviews and want to help me keep doing them, you can toss a buck via Ko-Fi page and a Buymecoffee page. I promise to waste it either on stls, or my crippling drug addiction, and nothing else. And a big thanks to a few folks who already have, and helped make these reviews possible!

For Previous Reviews and other 3D printing topics related to WWII gaming, head over to r/PrintedWWII

Also be sure to check out:

• The Printed Vehicles Reference Guide
• The Printed Infantry Reference Guide

Machete wielding Tirailleur by Miska Miniatures from the Grand Guerre Kickstarter Campaign

Hello everyone and welcome to another review, part of my long-running campaign to provide documentation and guidance for the best (and worst) out there for the WWII wargamer, and fill a bit of a hole that I wish had existed when I started out printing myself

Today's review is on the currently running Kickstarter from Miska Miniatures "Grande Guerre: Tirailleurs Sénégalais". Miska has run several past Kickstarters, and also runs a storefront both on their own through Gumroad, as well as on Wargaming3d, but aside from a small set of FFI already available, this is their first foray properly into historical, with their work up to now focusing on more modern figures for conflicts in the Middle East or Africa. Technically the figures are themed for World War I, but thanks to being French, the minimal changes to uniforms between the wars should ensure interest for WWII gaming as well, and put it on my radar.

I was provided with advance copies of the core files by Miska Miniatures for the purpose of review.

Printin

Officer figures from the Kickstarter

The models were printed resin with an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, sliced in Chitubox and printed in Elegoo ABS-like 3.0 resin using the default settings. During printing, I had no issues with any of the files, either in general or anything in particular that seemed to come about from file design. Files can be printed with provided supports, which are done in a Chitubox file, as well as with your own support instead. I found the support work to be particularly well done in this case, with particularly good orientations, and well placed both for ease of removal and with a particular eye for the more delicate places on the models. There are some light, thin points on these figures, and the pre-supports definitely help ensure they come through post-processing intact, and show the designer put some good through into their placement.

Models

270 degrees of a selection of figures helps to really show of the details

The figures from the Tirailleurs Kickstarter are well sculpted, with solid detailing and a generally appealing look, done up in a middle-of-the-road 'Heroic' style, with some proportional exaggerations, but nothing extreme, just enough to really help details stand out once painted and viewed from table distance

Soldier figure getting ready to fire. Note the puddle bases under the feet which help provide a good, stable figure even for the ones on the move.

The positions of the various figures are nicely varied, and in particular the more action-like poses have good, natural feeling positioning to them, so the figures don't come off as feeling overly stiff or awkward as can sometimes be the case. In addition, one particular small detail that pleases me greatly is the attention paid to the stability of the figures and the inclusion of small puddle bases for most figures. This is probably unnecessary for some, such as those on all fours, but especially for those in motion and with only one foot fully on the ground, it is always a particularly welcome addition to a sculpt and I'm always a fan of a designer including them!

Two figures which show of the delicate features well, in particular the gun barrels and rods.

I found very little to even nitpick with the figures from the campaign that I was provided with, and in fact my biggest concern was basically a non-issue. The detailing on the sculpts is great, but that does mean some parts which feel very light and fragile, in particular the ends of the gun barrels. But at least for the test prints I did, they almost all came out intact, and the few that did have issues were in post-processing before curing. Personally I wouldn't mind if there was some slight thickening of those parts, as I don't think it would hurt the aesthetic of the figures, but nevertheless they are inarguably well done.

Two copies of the same figure. Note the damage to the barrel on the left, which to be sure, was caused during post-processing. Going carefully and slow should prevent that issue, but DO be careful and slow.

In terms of scale, they are roughly comparable to other 28mm lines. In terms of style, their slightly 'Heroic' aesthetic makes them a pretty decent fit for figures such as those from Warlord Games. In terms of size, at 100%, I would judge them to be slightly bigger, but only in the sense that you have an army of stocky 6'3" dudes. Printing at perhaps 96% to 98% would result in a closer match for the very detail oriented, but for most folks, they ought to be fine as is.

Scale comparison: Warlord Plastic, Warlord Metal; Great Escape Metal; Warlord Plastic

I would note that I was only given pre-access to the core files. There are stretch-goal/add-ons that include cavalry figures and modular sets, so I can't do a direct assessment of those, but I would feel comfortable speculating that if the core files are an indication of Miska Miniatures' general quality, they can be expected to be quite good sculpts as well.

Selection

Some of the dead & wounded figures from the campaign.

The core files for the campaign include a solid selection for a varied half-platoon of Tirailleurs, with NCOs, LMGs, and VB grenade launchers, as well as an MMG team. The stretch goals help flesh things out with officers and casualties, as well as some additional uniform styling with a '1914 Version'. There are also a number of add-ons for the campaign which are at various price points. These include some cavalry figures - both chasseurs and spahis - and some terrain pieces such as a trench set or barbed wire. The biggest expansion though in the add-ons are the modular sets, with a set of modular Tirailleurs as well as modular set of Colonial troops, and an LMG team to boot. While not part of the main set, so they do add an extra cost to backing the campaign, these add a lot of expansion and variety so definitely solid bang-for-your-buck potential all the same.

If your officer needs a friend, what better option than a bugler?

Conclusions

Based on the samples provided, Tirailleurs Sénégalais is a very solid set of figures. The sculpts are great, well detailed, and provided with excellent support placement to boot. From a general angle, the set is absolutely top notch, and anyone doing some WWI gaming will be quite well served by giving this a look. For the WWII gamer, the utility can feel a bit more limited, with stuff like the 1914 Version stretch goal not quite filling a need, but thanks to French having comparatively small levels of evolution to their uniforms between the wars, the Tirailleurs are very easy to simply proxy for their 1940 brethren, or modify with some light kit-bashing (but be honest, at table distance can you really tell a M15 from an M26 Adrian helmet? Really?). These are very much worth a look for any French players out there.

If you like these reviews and want to help me keep doing them, you can toss a buck via Ko-Fi page and a Buymecoffee page. I promise to waste it either on stls, or my crippling drug addiction, and nothing else. And a big thanks to a few folks who already have, and helped make these reviews possible!

For Previous Reviews and other 3D printing topics related to WWII gaming, head over to r/PrintedWWII

Also be sure to check out:

• The Printed Vehicles Reference Guide
• The Printed Infantry Reference Guide

Not sure if this is the right flair, but I just created a pack on thingiverse that includes some ww2 helmets.

Pack contents: Norwegian M35, Dutch/Romanian M38, Czech Vz32, Danish m23, Greek M39, Swedish M26, and a bonus Sohlberg M17.

Recent additions: Bulgarian M36A and Hungarian 35M

Swedish M26 and Czech Vz32 would be great bits to add to your Finnish Continuation war army. The sohlberg would make a great piece for any Late WW1-Inter war conflicts of the Ex-Russian States.

Go to thingiverse and look up WW2 Helmet Pack or use this link

WW2 Helmet Pack

https://preview.redd.it/iqbjo2m7csrd1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=572fd383578d424c14af25c80328fe4a0f715e62

A Heavy Machine Gun Team from the 3DBreed 'Join or Die' line of 3d print designs

Hello everyone and welcome to another review, part of my long-running campaign to provide documentation and guidance for the best (and worst) out there for the WWII wargamer, and fill a bit of a hole that I wish had existed when I started out printing myself.

Today's review is on the new WWII releases from 3DBreed under their "Join or Die" line, which was launched as a Kickstarter earlier this year. Although 3DBreed has long been a staple of the WWII 3D printing world, this is a different approach than their existing "March to Hell" line, reflecting a new design style that will likely appeal to a different section of the market. 3DBreed operates primarily through their own storefront, but also operate a Patreon for their March to Hell Line, and makes some of their figures available through a MMF store (although the JoD line is not yet available there).

Models were not provided by 3DBreed for purpose of this review.

Printing

An officer and some radiomen

The models were printed resin with an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, sliced in Chitubox and printed in Elegoo ABS-like 3.0 resin using the default settings. During the printing, I ran into no issues that I could ascribe to the file design, nor any issues otherwise. All of the prints came out consistently good and without errors. The models were all provided with both supported and unsupported versions, and I printed a mix of both, using autosupports for the latter with manual adjustments and verification as needed. I didn't find any meaningful difference between the two options. The provides supports are decently well placed, with good orientation for the most part in terms of build plate usage. During post-processing, some of the pre-supports did come off as perhaps a little more sturdy than necessary (I always prefer as light as feasible, personally), but not to the point where it was causing any marks or marring when removing them.

M10 Wolverine, with the alt-turret for a British Achilles

For the vehicles, in addition to a resin test, I also printed one in PLA on a Prusa MK4S. This was printed using Prusament, and sliced in Prusa Slicer to print with .2mm layers. Supports were autogenerated, using organic style supports, and with some manual modification as needed. The vehicles I wouldn't quite call optimized for printing on an FDM machine, as it did require supports at points, but I would certainly describe them as FDM friendly. The supports necessary are generally obvious, and hardly extensive. Nor are they required to be in awkward places that make it hard to remove, with perhaps the sole exception being the hull machine gun, but that is always an awkward one no matter how optimized the print (and personally, them being so fragile, I feel that cutting it and replacing it with a small piece of paperclip in a drilled hole works better, generally).

Panzer III printed in PLA. Note that the hull MMG did snap off when I was removing supports, but I wouldn't call that a design issue.

Models

A variety of infantry figures for a basic squad, with BARs and NCOs

For those familiar with 3DBreed's existing line under the "March to Hell" line, they can be somewhat controversial, taking the idea of 'Heroic' proportions beyond the extreme, with a very cartoonish style of figures often referred to as 'chonky'. Some people love them, some people hate them. While the new "Join or Die" figures (building off of the style from their Revolutionary War series) don't go to the other extreme, they do over a much more 'standard' style, with the figures done in a fairly normal 'Heroic' style, with the exaggerations in proportions common there, but not to the cartoonish heights of before, and this should be a very welcome change for many, since even if you didn't like the style, it was hard to argue that on their own merits the 3DBreed designs were always well done and top quality.

View of a selection of US infantry from each side

And as one would hope, that continues to hold true here. The "Join or Die" figures are well sculpted designs, with figures showing a nice fluidity to them, and what I would rate to be a very good stylistic balance of detailing and proportions for what are clearly meant to be figures smack-dab in the middle of "Heroic" on the aesthetic scale. The figures are not done modularly, which does limit the volume of uniqueness, perhaps, but there is for the most part a good number of different poses to ensure a good level of variety.

Close up look at an NCO figure

Compared to existing lines of 28mm figures, they fit in quite well with other heroic style makers, so can be a solid complement to an existing force of Warlord Plastic or similar.

Three figures from 'Join or Die' compared to Warlord Plastic, Warlord Plastic, and Warlord Metal

However, while the figures get top marks from me, I nevertheless am underwhelmed by the vehicles, as they fall short for me on a few counts. To be sure, they are decently well done in terms of the broad detailing done on the models but they just don't hit what makes a great tank model in my book. This manifests itself in one notable issue, and then a second factor which isn't actually a negative but does warrant a word of caution

The first is a factor that I've banged the drum on a number of times in the past, namely that the turret just sits there. There is no form of locking mechanism sculpted in, nor is there clearance for the placement of a magnet to keep it secure. It is a small detail, but nevertheless one which I consider to be generally important for a top-tier wargaming model as they are getting picked up and moved about a fair bit, and I absolutely have had turrets go flying when they lacked it.

Breakdown of a tank for printing is into four pieces, but note the hull wall that is part of the tread pieces.

As for the second factor, while the vehicle models seem to mostly break down into a solid printing configuration (treads, hull, turret), they seem to often do the thing that I don't like where the treads print with a flat back to them that has the lower hull detailing. Some people do not care. That's fine, but I find it to be a pain as I paint the hull and treads separately before attaching them together! The flip side though is that it is a design choice that makes FDM printing much easier with the big flat surface on the print bed, so while I wouldn't rate the designs particularly high for a resin printer, if you are looking for solid enough designs you can do in PLA, as with the vehicles from "March to Hell" it is a decent place to look.

Detail of the turret well. Notice the marks on the bottom from the turret turning, as there is no space for a magnet.

Selection

Anti-tank gun with crew

So far, the "Join or Die" line doesn't tread new ground, with only offerings of US and German forces, but while there is certainly promise of a lot more variety in the future, if the growth of the "March to Hell" line is any indication, they have certainly hit the ground running in terms of depth from the get-go. I haven't personally tallied it up, but the Kickstarter claims to include over 300 figures and 8 vehicles, and that seems about right.

Many of the teams have multiple versions, such as the HMGs seen here.

You won't find any units that are particularly rare, but the Kickstarter provides a fairly complete, if mundane, force for both of the armies included, with a decent selection of infantry and HQ figures as the core pledge, and then a veritable laundry list of stretch goals that unlocked over the period. This expanded the forces to include additional riflemen, as well as SMGs, LMGs/BARs, and NCOs to round out your platoons, and then of course a solid selection of support teams. This includes snipers, AT guns, medics, bazooka/Panzerschrecks, MMGs, HMGs... the list goes on, and of course also includes several tanks, halftracks, and cars, including several old favorites like the Sherman or Stug III.

Bazooka team

It is also worth noting that the vehicles, while they generally lack deep detail into the variations, do at least include accoutrements to allow printing of multiple variants, such as the M10 which includes extra turrets, such as to allow for the British Firefly to be fielded with its 17-pdr gun. In all cases, the hulls are the same, which might not be sufficient for the true purist, but if you are looking for a way to maximize your flexibility with minimal shelf space, it is definitely a great solution.

A BAR gunner is essential to any American force!

Conclusions

Mortar team

3DBreed has long been one of the biggest design groups out there for WWII print files, and while the quality of their sculpted figures has always been top notch, their aesthetic choices have not been for everyone. The addition of WW2 figures to their 'Join or Die' line should thus be an incredibly welcome arrival. Their existing experience in design allowed them to easily hit the ground running on this series, and although they started out with US and Germany, two nations hardly hurting for choices, with a collection of figures that show a level of quality for 'standard' heroic style figures that can go toe-to-toe with almost any similar offering out there however crowded the field might be.

To be sure, there is some underwhelming delivery on the vehicles, but even there, the design choices might not tick off all the boxes I look for, but they still do stand out for their ease of PLA printing. Overall, I was very happy with the results I saw, and more than anything, am eager to see them branch out into the less common nations and units that they have already covered in great depth with their March to Hell line.

If you like these reviews and want to help me keep doing them, you can toss a buck via Ko-Fi page and a Buymecoffee page. I promise to waste it either on stls, or my crippling drug addiction, and nothing else. And a big thanks to a few folks who already have, and helped make these reviews possible!

For Previous Reviews and other 3D printing topics related to WWII gaming, head over to r/PrintedWWII

Also be sure to check out:

• The Printed Vehicles Reference Guide
• The Printed Infantry Reference Guide

A selection of alt-history US infantry from Golden Dragon Games

Hello everyone and welcome to another review, part of my long-running campaign to provide documentation and guidance for the best (and worst) out there for the WWII wargamer, and fill a bit of a hole that I wish had existed when I started out printing myself.

Today's review is on Golden Dragon Games, whic produces their own line of WWII themed alt-history figures, primarily for their own line known as 'Marcher', but generally appropriate for 'Weird War'/'Diesel Punk' style WWII games such as K47, or simply adding some interesting flavor to your infantry which you otherwise play straight. They operate their own site with information about Marcher, and their storefront is primarily through MyMiniFactory, which includes a Tribe, as well as a Patreon site, and a recently completed campaign on Kickstarter which also included a physical, plastic model component.

Models were not provided by GDG for purpose of this review.

Printing

Tank configuration of the \"M48\"

The models were printed resin with an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, sliced in Chitubox and printed in Elegoo ABS-like 3.0 resin using the default settings. All of the prints came out just fine, without any issues that I would ascribe to the model design or otherwise. Models are provided with both unsupported and pre-supported versions, of which I printed a mix. Supports are nicely done, and I found them to be generally well placed, and removal quite clean and easy.

Models

Detail view of a Japanese infantry figure

Golden Dragon Games' models are a bit off of my normal path, since I focus pretty firmly on the historical side of WWII gaming, but a friend knew I had a printer, and asked if I could print off some of these for him if he bought the STLs. Who am I to say 'no'? And I must say, I am quite impressed with what I encountered here, to the point I might need to give Marcher a try in the near future myself! The models have really great levels of detail, which stands out quite nicely both at table distance and up close as well. The infantry figures have a wide variety of poses and they all are well sculpted with a good feeling of motion to them and nothing comes off as stiff like some creators

US rear echelon troops only have modular heads, but dozens of body poses to ensure a lot of variety still.

Being ahistorical of course, there can't be any judgement on the correctness of the gear on the figures, but the designer(s) is clearly very imaginative, and they have executed some really wonderful looking figures that have such a nice feel to them. The ones I was provided were a mix of Japanese and US, and both have what, to me at least, was a really evocative combination of a WWII feel with an aesthetic drawing from the right balance of cultural tropes. The Japanese infantry especially, with their Samurai-esque armor, look absolutely killer and I'm excited to play against them. They are roughly appropriate to fit in with other 28mm lines out there, although perhaps slightly taller, but not enough to be particularly noticeable. For the anal retentive, I would recommend printing at perhaps 97% to 98% to cut them down a smidge, but stylistically they are a great match for other heroic lines out there.

Scale comparison: Warlord Metal, Warlord Plastic, Warlord Plastic, Great Escape metal. GNG is a smidge taller at 100% but just enough to look very tall, nothing more.

The infantry done by GDG is generally modular, although to varying degrees depending on the specific product. The Japanese infantry for instance print as heads, torsos, arms, and accessories, with a good variety of poses and weaponry available, while the US infantry I used only has the heads as modular, this specific pack intended to be reserve troops I think, so lacking a variety of arms/weapons, but more than making up for it with a large selection of poses all the same. The modularity is well executed, and the assembly proved to be very easy, with clean connections where the arms and torsos meet, so should need little to no putty for gap filling as is the case with some modular packs out there.

M48 in troop transport configuration

As for the vehicles, the one tank that I printed out was just as stellar as the infantry. The vehicles also seem to often be modular, and in this case there was a great selection for alternative configurations of weaponry, as well as visual differences like how the treads were covered, and even whether to be a turreted tank or a pure transport vehicle. The way that the pieces connect means that for some of the options even one ought to also be able to fairly easily print both options for one hull.

Underside of the swappable pieces to change from transport to tank versions. Fight was a bit tight for these but minimal trimming was needed to fit.

I also need to do a specific highlight on the turret rotation mechanism, as I found it to be quite superb in design. I at the least want to see models which have space to include a magnet, but this is a design which went well above and beyond, with a well designed locking mechanism for the turret to fit into and then be able to rotate freely. While there are a few other designers out there doing models like this, it is too few and far between, so I'm always a massive fan when I see it and hope more designers continue to implement these kinds of designs.

The rotation mechanism for the turret of the M48

The only downsides I ran into were quite minor, namely with the fit on some of the vehicle parts. Some things just ended up seeming a bit too tight, and there were multiple places that I had to trim or file down to get a smooth fit. None of the fit issues were drastic, so could have very well been a dimensional accuracy issue with the printer, but nevertheless did stand out given how few issues I ran into otherwise!

Selection

Some of the selection for the Japanese infantry, including a variety of weapons, and a ton of headgear options as well

As noted, fundamentally GDG designs are intended for their own game, Marcher, but all of the factions have at least rough analogs for the historical timeline, with US, French, Russian, and Japanese factions, and then a never fallen Holy Roman Empire which is closer to Hungary than Germany, but some flavor from the latter too. Some of the factions are fairly well built out at this point, with a number of options for the US for instance, while some seem to be pretty recent launches, like the Ruskies, but new releases seem to be happening at a fairly brisk pace - and I'm sure the success of the recent Kickstarter will help there further - and there seems to be a good bit of lore built up for the game as well that will direct further creations in the pipeline. Selection is in the end kind of tautological as the options in the game will continue to grow alongside what is made

The configuration for printing of the M48 as well as some, but not all, of the variety of options to customize look and load out

Beyond that though, it is hard to really evaluate the selection. To be sure, as an historical gamer, if you just want to field some stuff that looks kind of right but with the aesthetic as a twist, there are some really great options, with all of the factions at the least having a solid modular infantry set to build out a core force. Similarly, for a K47 player, not everything will translate perfectly, but especially for the more built-out forces like the USA, there are a lot of options to draw from, as well as a really good base for further modifications with digital kitbashing.

Conclusions

A selection of assembled Japanese infantry

I was only vaguely aware these existed until quite recently, but I must say, now that I've gotten to handle some of the figures, I'm a big fan of Golden Dragon Games and of Marcher! The models really do speak for themselves here, with top notch quality sculpting, a great aesthetic, and a quickly growing catalog. I can't speak to the quality of the game itself (yet), but they are certainly a great advertisement for it and quite emphatic in putting it on my radar. As for the more historically minded gamer, while this might fall outside of the interests for a true purist, the historical flavoring of the game is definitely enough that if you are looking for a unique aesthetic to put on the table, there is plenty of that to go around, and these figures are more than usable as proxies for 'real' units too, just with a nice quirk to them. At the end of the day, the biggest criticism I can have is that I'm annoyed they aren't sculpting historical units too, because the FOMO is real.

If you like these reviews and want to help me keep doing them, you can toss a buck via Ko-Fi page and a Buymecoffee page. I promise to waste it either on stls, or my crippling drug addiction, and nothing else. And a big thanks to a few folks who already have, and helped make these reviews possible!

For Previous Reviews and other 3D printing topics related to WWII gaming, head over to r/PrintedWWII

Also be sure to check out:

• The Printed Vehicles Reference Guide
• The Printed Infantry Reference Guide

A Middle Eastern style building from Deweycat Productions newest Kickstarter.

Hello everyone and welcome to another review, part of my long-running campaign to provide documentation and guidance for the best (and worst) out there for the WWII wargamer, and fill a bit of a hole that I wish had existed when I started out printing myself.

Today's review is on the 'Deweycat Productions Middle Eastern Terrain .stl Pack' recently run on Kickstarter. Deweycat is of course one of the institutions of WWII 3d printing - in particular FDM friendly designs - and while Deweycat has a storefront on Wargaming3D with a long back catalog of models, this is their second (hopefully of many) crowdfunded campaign.

Printing

A desert tent from Deweycat. A few supports on the interior won't hurt, but you can probably get away without them.

Most models were done on a Prusa Mk3S+ FDM machine, using Prusa Slicer to prepare the models. When necessary, supports were autogenerated with the 'paint' feature and generated as organic supports. A .6mm nozzle was used for all prints, with a mix of .2mm and .3mm layer heights, and the models were printed using Hatchbox PLA.

Water well from Deweycat. The detail isn't done at an overly fine level, so even with the .6mm nozzle it generally comes out nicely and not 'washed out', a hallmark of the durable gaming pieces that Deweycat designs.

Additionally I printed one model in resin with an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, sliced in Chitubox and printed in Elegoo ABS-like 3.0 resin using the default settings.

A market stand

Printing was simply and easy, as one would expect from Deweycat models. All of the models are FDM-optimized (or at least include both a resin and FDM optimized version in a few cases), and the knowledge and experience that Mr. Cat brings to his modeling remains as true as ever here. I ran into no issues with the prints, whether from the design or otherwise. A few pieces are designed to as to necessitate supports, but in all cases it is very clear where they will be needed, so no concerns about hidden overhangs or potential bridges that are deceptive in their length. In the case of the donkey, which is one of the most complicated figures in the pack, a resin optimized version is included (which you can try to print on FDM with generous supports and probably succeed), and then the FDM version which is split in half to ensure a good seat on the build plate.

The donkey split in half for printing cuts down on necessary supports.

As for resin, I only printed one test in resin, specifically the barbed-wire as it is the only piece that doesn't have a true FDM equivalent (although the FDM variation is great!), but likewise encountered no issues. Obviously it takes a fair bit of supports to print due to all the barbs, but the wire is done nice and thick to ensure it remains sturdy while doing the post-processing.

Barbed wire is the only Resin-only piece in the campaign. Here is is on the barbed-wire emplacement with a rolled wire on the other half for comparison. Both work well.

Models

The Administrative building, which is part of the 'All In' version of the pledge.

This is the third review I've done of Deweycat's models (one general, and one for a previous campaign), and while to be honest there isn't much new to say, there is nothing about Deweycat's models which isn't worth repeating all the same. He isn't a flashy designer, but I'd be hard pressed to think of one I consider more dependable. Because he works with the clear aim of FDM-friendly designs, there usually isn't going to be the same level of detail that can be found in some other places, but the stolid dependability of his models simply can't be underrated. I often will use the dichotomy of designs that are for gaming versus ones which are models one can use for gaming, and this Deweycat is kind of the platonic ideal of a gaming designer, providing pieces which are easy to make, durable for repeated use and handling, and well balanced in the level of detail to look great when painted up on the table but no more detail than necessary so as to not negatively impact those other two qualities.

Typical breakdown of a building, with removable roof, and an optional base plate you can choose to use or not.

In almost all cases, the Deweycat models are on the mark for what I am looking for myself in terms of design. Buildings always have removable roofs, and removable floors in the case of multistory buildings, and the pieces all secure together unlike some designers where the upper floor apparently just sits on top to be knocked over by accident. The buildings have base plates, which are not necessary to use but can offer some additional details to the design for those who prefer to use them. In addition, a number of ruined building sections are includes and can be combined with the baseplates to created ruined versions of the various buildings, or unique ruined structures unconnected from the standing examples.

Market stall without its printed top. I believe that the intention with the crossbar is to easily allow, if you prefer, to put a cloth top on instead of the printed version.

Other pieces such as the shacks and defensive positions likewise come in a few pieces, and assembly is a breeze. It is never unclear what is supposed to fit to what, and where possible or appropriate, there is generally some slot or space to help keep the pieces properly seated when gluing together.

A defensive emplacement. The interior is designed to be roomy and fit standard circular artillery bases of up to 60mm, which is nice foresignt.

The smaller pieces are all well done, with the limited detail but durable handling Deweycat aims for, and in particular is ideal for the little pieces of scatter terrain cluttering a table. In particular the barbed-wire emplacements stand out here, since as noted they are the only ones without a 1-to-1 Resin / FDM version. Instead the resin optimized versions include the entire piece, wire includes, while the FDM version is only the base, with the wire being something that you can add yourself (I personally use some scrap I have in the toolkit wrapped around a pencil to shape). Both options are great, and its a good way to split the difference on one of the aspects where FDM printers just won't perform as hoped.

Road block piece with rolled-wire attached as barbed wire.

Any negatives I might offer are going to be nitpicky, and in half the cases they are entirely personal preference rather than actual downsides. Deweycat's road system for instance isn't one I use as I prefer pieces that properly lock together, but all the same the pieces includes here continue to use the interlocking system that he developed to split the difference between a full-interlocking system which requires a thicker road, and the simply 'flat ends next to each other' that most designers go with, and it really does offer a great middle ground for those who want a bit from each side of the coin. The closest thing I might have to a complaint is regards how the roofs of some buildings seem to attach, using two pegs on the building that go into two holes on the roof... but the holes go all the way through! Its a minor aesthetic blemish that will make it a little tougher to get a nice looking finish there. I expect there was some pragmatic reason behind it, but nevertheless I don't like it and personally I would have traded of slightly bulkier bottoms on the roof to have that hidden, but its rather small potatoes all things considered.

The way these stick out of the roof are my only meaningful complaint, but it is a small one. It is a simple, pragmatic approach to the securing of the roof through, which to be fair, fits the vibes of broad design philosophy.

Selection

Some scatter terrain and an objective marker

The Middle East pack roughly follows the pattern that Deweycat established with their earlier Eastern Front Campaign, with two tiers for a 'Basic' group of the core buildings, and the broader 'All-In' with extra buildings, scatter, and other fun things. As before, no stretch-goals were included in the campaign, but given how much is available from the get-go, one can't really complain. Doubly so when you consider just how reasonably priced it all is, with even the All-In package coming in at a little under 20 bucks (or $25 CA as officially priced as Deweycat is a denizen of the frozen wasteland to my north). I expect that the price will be slightly higher when made available on Wargaming3d, but still hard to beat in the 'bang-for-your-buck' category.

Ruins can be standalone, or you can place them on the existing base plates to create specific ruined layours of the complete buildings.

The core package is seven buildings, with four houses, a pair of market stalls, and a mosque that makes for a nice centerpiece. The All-In adds a nicely varied selection of items, including more buildings, ruins and rubble, roads, objectives, and a bunch of scatter terrain, among other bits and pieces. I previously described the Eastern Front pack as a 'Battlefield in a Box Zip-File' and it is no less true here. Between the terrain included, and the easy ability to mirror the asymmetrical designs for added variety, there is far more than enough to populate a good looking board for a desert-themed fight.

The donkey cart.

Conclusions

Saving the littlest for last, these stands are designed to attach to the cheap plastic palm trees to provide basing for them.

Deweycat is now two for two in delivering some A+ terrain packs via Kickstarter, and although I've always been a fan, with the double slam-dunks he has very clearly moved into my 'shut up and take my money' list for Kickstarters when they hit my in-box. You get exactly what is on the tin, and you know it hits the spot. He is putting out some really great, thematic packs to populate out a complete board, and in particular it is great to see the coverage focusing outside of Western Europe, which by far dwarfs the availability of terrain options for any other theater of the war. There are still plenty of under-covered regions and themes which are rich for mining here, and I'm eager to see what ends up on offer next.

If you like these reviews and want to help me keep doing them, you can toss a buck via Ko-Fi page and a Buymecoffee page. I promise to waste it either on stls, or my crippling drug addiction, and nothing else. And a big thanks to a few folks who already have, and helped make these reviews possible!

For Previous Reviews and other 3D printing topics related to WWII gaming, head over to r/PrintedWWII

Also be sure to check out:

• The Printed Vehicles Reference Guide
• The Printed Infantry Reference Guide

A modular bunker from Akamaru 3D Workshop

Hello everyone and welcome to another review  review, part of my ongoing quest to try and highlight the various creators out there working on 3d printed content suitable for World War II wargaming, and provide better guidance on the many options available.

Today's focus is on the , "Modular Military Buildings: Pillbox Bunkers" Kickstarter campaign by Akamaru 3D Workshop.  Although the campaign recently concluded, but they also operate their own storefront where the files are available for late pledges.

For this write-up, I was provided with review files from the Kickstarter campaign by Akamaru 3D.

PRINTING

A larger bunker assembly using a mix of high and low walls.

Printing was done on a Prusa Mk3S+ FDM machine, using Prusa Slicer to prepare the models. Prints were made with a .6mm nozzle, printing at .3mm layers, and the models were printed using a mix of eSUN PLA+ and Overture Easy PLA. Supports, when necessary, were applied using the automatic painter and then visually confirmed/modified/added to as needed, and always printed using organic support style.

Same bunker from an angle. The 'New' style seen here in particular prints very easy. Some light addition of supports may be needed for worn/damaged, especially with parts that overhang.

For the Resin parts, I printed on an Elegoo Mars 3 Pro using Phrozen 4k resin. Slicing was done in Chitubox, with recommended settings. Files are provided with both unsupported and pre-supported versions, of which I printed a mix.

All in all, printing of the files was a breeze. For the bunker pieces, all of the files have a flat surface for easy printing on the build plate and everything is well optimized for FDM printing. Almost all of the pieces are printable without supports, and for those where they are necessary, it is generally fairly obvious which will need them, and straight forward in adding them. This is mostly the case with the bridging on the damaged/worn versions of files as the pockmarked surfaces are uneven so won't make for clean bridging. Some basic supports nip that in the bud quite easily though. And having done tests of almost every file structure both with and without supports, even if you forget the file will still complete successfully and only need some slight post-print work to clean it up.

In addition to the bunker pieces, a small number of additional bits are provided for furnishing the buildings, such as tables and crates. These are resin optimized for the most part, with finer detail than the bunker parts, so was how I printed them. The pre-supported files are well done, although I wouldn't flag the results as being any noticeably better or worse than the ones I added supports on myself. In both cases though, the resin printing was clean and without problems from the files or otherwise.

Examples of the resin-printed bits to add some interior character to your bunker.

I only encountered one actual issue with the files for printing, with certain corner pieces being a little too thin, resulting in some walls not slicing or correctly, even with a smaller nozzle. I had been provided with pre-release versions of the files though, and when I flagged this I was almost immediately provided with the fixed files as it was a problem already identified and being fixed. In the end I would if anything note this all as a positive, Akamaru 3D generally being a pretty good outfit when it comes to quality control on their files and testing to ensure good prints throughout.

The Models

Interior detail of a small bunker, as well as the OpenLock connection pieces in action on the roof.

Perhaps the best way I would describe the bunker pieces is that they are simple, but very effective. The central conceit of the entire campaign is the interchangeability of the parts so too much unique detailing on the pieces would in the end be quite detracting. Instead we're provided with a very reasonable variety of pieces which are sculpted, to my mind at least, to just about where they need to be to maximize that flexibility without being too basic.

Single story, round bunker

The modularity of the files is built using the OpenLock system, which is, likewise, quite simple and very effective. For the most part the files follow the 'standard' OpenLock file convention, and using the provided file 'key' it was quite easy to start figuring out the configurations and pre-planning what sets of files to print each time. The OpenLock connections themselves are very easy to manage and almost feel like I'm playing with Legos.

Same round base as before, but now with an upper floor added of half-height walls for firing positions.

The assembled products are generally solid. The nature of the OpenLock system means there is a degree of uniformity no matter how you assemble the files, but of course bunkers are really the perfect building type for this as in reality they were all pretty blocky and somewhat uniform, so lean right into the strengths of OpenLock. They might not appeal to someone who is looking to put together a particularly artisanal board, but for the average game board, I feel like these fit in just fine, and in particular for someone like a tournament organizer who just needs a metric fuck-ton of terrain, options like this are surely a godsend.

Selection

Interior look at a 'rounded' type bunker, including stairs to the upper level

The modularity of the set of course means that there is a very high ceiling to just what can be done with the files, and while some configurations certainly will look more 'proper' than others, it is of course a 'skies the limit kind of deal', whether you want a square little pillbox, or a sprawling defensive complex, not to mention some hilariously ahistorical skyscraper (although even then, you could make a passable flak tower I bet)

A few unique pieces are included outside of the 'standard' OpenLock, including seen here the wall clips (on the left) to cover up the slot when transitioning from high to low alls (as on the right).

Insofar as variety is appropriate to discuss, it breaks down into three categories.

The first is the surface details, which come in three styles. One is 'New', which simply is smooth surfaced pieces. This is followed by 'Worn' and 'Damaged', both of which offer degrees of wear and tear, with the former representing more of a weathering on the surface, and the latter then reflecting actual battle damage, with larger pockmarking such as from bullets and shells.

Damaged, worn, and new styles for the walls.

The second is the building itself. Here we see options for either circular walls or straight walls, as well as full-height walls and short walls, and of course blank walls versus doors or firing slots (which also have their own sizes and placement).

Some examples of the various wall types available, but hardly exhaustive!

Finally there is the trim, which comes in three styles, allowing either for sharp, right angled corners, a transitional, chamfered corner, or a smoother rounded corner. This is included with both the trim pieces that connects the roofs, as well as the corner pieces of the walls.

Trim options include the sharp corner, the chamfered corner, and the rounded corner.

All together, these allow for an incredibly large variety of bunker construction to fit many different needs and situations. More than anything else I really appreciate simply bringing an OpenLock set out for a modern setting. It is a overall great system, but almost entirely used for fantasy-esque focused sets. Some out there roughly fit for your standard "old European village", but the utility up to now has been quite limited. As such, it is really great to see a set that uses the system for something a bit different.

In addition to the bunker parts, there are some nice little extra 'bits'. These include tables, chairs, stools, and so on. These collectively can add some nice small touches. A small number of figures are also provided, with sculpts by 3DBreed (to be covered in a later review).

Conclusions

More than anything, I had a lot of fun with these prints. Printing off a bunch of pieces, dropping them into a pile on the table, and just noodling around as I assembled a few bunkers reminded me of playing with Legos or similar kinds of toys. Considering there is only so much one can do with the concept of 'bunker', there is a good amount of variety to the pieces in this set, and a ton you can do with it. I can certainly understand the aesthetic not being for everyone, as the requirements of modularity does nevertheless place an upper limit on creativity, and you will inevitable have the seams showing, but the set nails what it aims to be, and that should be understood as nothing less than high praise.

If you like these reviews and want to help me keep doing them, you can toss a buck via Ko-Fi page and a Buymecoffee page. I promise to waste it either on stls, or my crippling drug addiction, and nothing else. And a big thanks to a few folks who already have, and helped make these reviews possible!

For Previous Reviews and other 3D printing topics related to WWII gaming, head over to r/PrintedWWII

Also be sure to check out:

• The Printed Vehicles Reference Guide
• The Printed Infantry Reference Guide

Chibi style 'Toonkrieg' figure from 18Charlie

Hello everyone and welcome to another review  review, part of my ongoing quest to try and highlight the various creators out there working on 3d printed content suitable for World War II wargaming, and provide better guidance on the many options available

Today's focus is on 18Charlie Miniatures, a prolific designer of infantry, vehicular, and building models noted for their 'Toonkrieg' line. They operate primarily through a storefront on Wargaming3d, and although they do seem to have a website of their own, it doesn't seem to been updated in years. I'm not aware of a Patreon or anything similar.

Printing

Sdkfz 222 printed in resin

I printed most of the models in resin with an Elegoo Mars 3 Pro using Phrozen 4k resin. Slicing was done in Chitubox, with recommended settings for the Phrozen 4k. The files are not provided with pre-supports, so all support work was done myself in Chitubox.

Close in of an infantry model shows the level of detail done on the figures.

In addition to resin, several FDM printed were done on a Prusa Mk3S+ FDM machine, using Prusa Slicer to prepare the models. The building was made with a .6mm nozzle, printing at .3mm layers, and the vehicle with a .4mm nozzle printing at .2mm layers, and the models were printed using Overture Easy PLA.

Kubelwagen printed in PLA

From a technical perspective, the prints are uniformly great. I ran into no issues while printing, ascribable to either the designs or otherwise. For FDM in particular, the nature of the designs being somewhat bulky, the vehicles are very friendly prints. The undercarriages on some vehicles, such as the Kubelwagen I printed, do mean you won't have a flat surface on the bed, but slight angling and organic supports resulted in a perfectly fine print.

Building printed in PLA

Because of small things like that, I'm not sure I would quite call the files FDM optimized, but at the same time, I wouldn't call them resin optimized either, as I did have one issue with the printing itself, namely that for the secondary parts, they are mostly provided in 'groups', so instead of each wheel being its own file, or all of the hatch pieces being separate, they are one file with the various pieces all arrayed. This is perfectly fine for FDM printing, but it means a ton of wasted, empty space on your build plate when doing resin prints, and space which quickly adds up. I almost certainly could have done everything in one less print if I'd been able to optimize distribution and consolidate as I wanted.

The turret parts for the SdKfz 222 come together as one file like this which is annoying for resin printing, or else requires manually splitting the parts.

To be sure, that isn't an issue with the files themselves, but it will probably be a little frustrating, in the end, it is the only printing issue I really had, with everything else - vehicles, artillery, figures, and building, printing great.

The Models

88mm gun on swivel

OK. So first things first. Yes, 18Charlie is the Toonkrieg line of cartoonish, Chibi-ish figures. They are definitely a style, and one which is definitely not for everyone. From examples shared on r/boltaction before, I know some people love them, and some people have a bizarre amount of hate for them. For this review though, the stance here is essentially agnostic, and my intention is to evaluate them on their own merits.

270 degrees of a selection of figures showing of the style, detail, and gear included.

To that end, it is hard not to call the designs anything less than great. The designer has a vision, and he executed it to incredibly well. The figures have great levels of detail which is very well sculpted, and the design philosophy generally speaking is just one which brings character to them just by virtue of existing. This then often goes above and beyond in leaning into the humor of it all as well, such as the Flak 88 crewmen on ladders or stilts.

88mm gun with crew figures, which can get pretty silly looking!

The vehicles and artillery follow the same pattern as the figures, with vehicles similarly having a bulky, cartoonish look that matches the figures well, but doesn't feel quite as exaggerated in some cases. Definitely things are more 'squished' in how they all feel higher than non-Toonkrieg style, but perhaps it is just because vehicles are more angular and non-organic it just doesn't come off the same way.

An example of the right fit seen here, the 88mm gun should be all the way down on that peg, but will need some shaving to fit properly.

I only ran into two issues worth noting. In a few cases, I did find the fit of pieces to be somewhere between very snug, to simply too tight. It wasn't the case on everything, but spread across multiple prints, and not uniform on any given build-plate, it does suggest to me that this is a file issue and not a 'printer having dimensional accuracy' issue. None of the issues were significant enough that some light use with a file or an exacto knife can't fix it, so I wouldn't flag it as anything serious.

One example of a tight fit, the gun doesn't want to quite fit slush inside the appropriate slots on the turret.

The only other meaningful negative I think is their style, not necessarily in a judgmental kind of way, but more in just a pragmatic sense of how it feels like these are figures you need to commit to. Having an army which is a mix of these and other brands would have a lack of a cohesive look far beyond just about any other combination possible. I can compare the scale of these to other brands, but it almost seems silly to bother given just how different they are. To be sure, if you just don't care, mixing and matching won't hurt anyone, but it does feel to me that you really get the most out of these models when you are wanting to go in fully in a thematic sense.

18Charlie with a mix of metal and plastic figures. Although bigger by default, the figures can scale down slightly, but there is nevertheless going to be a stylistic disconnect which is on display here.

The terrain from 18Charlie then almost feels out of place in just being... buildings although it also is harder to see how one would effectively Chibi-fi a house while still having it work well as a terrain piece. In any case though, the buildings are nice looking pieces and quite usable broadly, whether you have a Chibi army or not. They seem a little on the bulky side to me, which seems to likely be a product of many of the buildings being designed for 1/100 scale, so get bulkier when you scale them up to 1/56. The main issue I have though is the lack of any sort of peg & hole system to secure the roof to the building. While it is something that can be added manually, it is just such a no-brainer to include, so I just find it strange when designers have removable roofs but expect them to just sit loose on top.

While a nice enough print, the thickness of the building walls are on display here. In addition, the pegs are not part of the model but had to be added by me.

Selection

Almost a case where it is easier to say what they don't have than what they do! I'm being slightly hyperbolic, but it really is true that 18Charlie has pretty massive coverage. Not only is there the 'Big Five' (US, UK, Germany, Japanese, USSR) but they include a number of minor powers - French, Italy, Hungary (basically the only expansive Hungarian infantry out there for printing) - and also have a number of sub-factions if you want specifically themed forces, such as Fallschrimjager, USMC, or Bersaglieri.

A selection of the various nationalities available from 18Charlie

As I noted earlier, one of the few weaknesses is - to me at least - the need to try and build an entire force using the 'Toonkrieg' figures from 18Charlie given how aesthetically disjointed a mixed force would be, but they definitely make this easy enough to manage, with one of the largest back catalogs of any designer out there, and plenty of options not only for basic infantry, but support units as well, and a generally deep well of vehicular and artillery options as well for most of the nations/factions they design for.

Typical breakdown of the vehicle parts, which makes for easy painting and assembly.

The depth of options also extends to buildings as well, with a strong focus on European-appropriate buildings, but also a strong selection of defensive positions, including a large span of options for modular trench systems.

Conclusions

The 18Charlie designs can be divisive based on what I've seen, but while, to be honest, they aren't really my cup of tea in terms of aesthetics, but I'll go full on Voltaire to nevertheless defend them and tell the haters to bugger off. They are well sculpted, and great prints, and bring a wonderfully unique vision to the table. I probably wouldn't make my army out of them, but I find it hard to believe that anyone who does do so would be anything less than an absolute delight to play against. These are figures for people who don't want to take themselves too seriously, and more than anything have fun in the hobby. Not everyone will want to use them, but I think WWII gaming is much better for having them out there as an option.

If you like these reviews and want to help me keep doing them, you can toss a buck via Ko-Fi page and a Buymecoffee page. I promise to waste it either on stls, or my crippling drug addiction, and nothing else. And a big thanks to a few folks who already have, and helped make these reviews possible!

For Previous Reviews and other 3D printing topics related to WWII gaming, head over to r/PrintedWWII

Also be sure to check out:

• The Printed Vehicles Reference Guide
• The Printed Infantry Reference Guide