This project will offer a wide range of terrain solutions: hills, plateaus, rock formations, cliffs, rivers, paths, forests, trees... Every terrain element you can imagine will be included in this project, whenever possible. Some of them will be one-of-a-kind pieces, while others will be designed to be printed in parts and, if possible, will offer modular options to expand the assembly possibilities.
Big fan of Bergman, as we all are, and currently looking for miniatures that match his in style and FDM friendliness. Does anyone have any good recommendations? Specifically British late Cold War vehicles. I love Captain Ahabs miniatures too, they just don’t scale up very well. I just seem to be at a bit of a loss for chieftains, challengers and scimitars at that scale. :(
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 printer.
Today's review is focused on Studio Grozny. Studio Grozny focuses mostly on minifigures and terrain, and they maintain storefronts on both Wargaming3D and MyMiniFactory, although I believe only some of their models are available on the latter. I'm not aware of a Patreon/Tribes/etc. or any past Kickstarters.
No models were provided by Studio Grozny for this review.
PRINTING
Officer figure from an artillery crew
Test prints for figures were done as resin prints on an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, sliced in Chitubox and printed with Conjure Sculpt resin, using 2.7s exposure for .05mm layers. Printing went smoothly, and I encountered no printing errors which I would ascribe to either file design issues or otherwise. Most (but not all) models do include pre-supported and unsupported options and I printed a mix. While the placement/orientation of the supports in a technical sense is fine, and resulted in successful prints, ultimately I was not a fan of the pre-supports. I found them to be very excessively done, using a heavy support style that even after a long soak in IPA, and a final dunk in hot water, left some serious pockmarking on a number of the figures I printed using them. I was happier with the ones I did my own support work on, and think that they came out cleaner. If you are very uncomfortable even using the autosupport function, pre-supports are there as an option here, but I recommend avoiding them.
The remains of the overly heavy supports that Studio Grozny uses for pre-supports.
In addition to the resin prints, I tested some FDM terrain pieces. There were done on a Prusa MK4S, with a .6mm HF nozzles. Printing was done with Overture Easy PLA, and sliced in Prusa Slicer. From a printing perspective, I did not fond the models to be well designed. There are large buildings, so make more sense as FDM prints, but they are not at all optimized for it, resulting in a lot of poorly positioned overhangs and rather excessive support requirements at some points. They are printable, to be sure, but I would recommend manually editing the files for ease of printing in some situations.
Roof of the building I printed. As designed the edge is flush to the build plate, but that doesn't seem at all necessary and the whole thing could have been flat on the plate.
MODELS
Heavy mortar and crewmen
If I'm being frank, I can't say I was impressed by the selection of models that I printed out as test pieces from Studio Grozny. While the models seem well sculpted in a technical sense, with good, clear detailing that definitely should hold up well when painted and viewed at table distances, there is something just kind of off about many of the figures. I find the poses to often be very stiff, with a certain unnaturalness to them, and in some cases the proportions seem off. If the style was strongly heroic it might be less noticeable, but in going for a more balanced style it definitely shows. Likewise it really shows with the figures who are in motion, which lack the fluidity some designs bring (and also they lack a puddle base, which by this point everyone knows I really like).
Various angles of view for Studio Grozny figures
To be sure, that isn't to say there aren't positives, as the style definitely makes for figures that feel robust and durable, without protrusions like weapons seeming too thickened, and a generally good job in ensuring that there aren't unnecessary protrusions. There is little of that, and these are gaming figures which should hold up well to a lot of play on the table. Compared to other models, they are roughly the right height, but they don't quite match in terms of style, so might not be ideal for someone trying to fit these into an existing force. They strike me as figures that won't satisfy people who like heroic, nor true scale, since they split the difference but not really in a way that quite fits in with either.
Warlord Plastic; Artizan Metal; Warlord Plastic; Warlord Metal
In addition to the figures, I printed out one artillery piece in my tests, and again I have mixed feelings. The model itself is well sculpted, but the decision in how it was broken down is honestly just weird. I'm certainly a fan of making large prints into a multi-part model, but would have been happy with just the base and the gun separated out. But splitting it into 10 pieces was strange, and in particular making the barrel three pieces I just don't get. It seems unnecessary - it can't quite be called FDM optimization as even broken down I wouldn't call it an easy FDM print - and just results in the assembled barrel looking worse than it would otherwise.
This felt excessive to me for breakdown. The barrel in particular I would have liked to have as one piece instead of three.
And then finally as to the buildings, these too are a mixed bag. Visually I find them to be quite nice, and when pieces separate out, there is usually some sort of peg and hole system to keep things in place, but not all of them separate out in ways I would call ideal, either with places I would expect a removable floor or roof noting having one at all, or else done in a way that seems kind of awkward, and in both cases less than ideal for tabletop play where you use the interiors. Combined with the poor printing optimization, there just seem like buildings where the main design philosophy was 'make them look good' and actual functionality was secondary.
FDM printed building. It looks decent, but see the previous image fo the print issues.
SELECTION
The body of this one in particular struck me as a very weird and awkward pose.
The main focus of Studio Grozny is on the Japanese and British/Commonwealth, so mostly with a Southeast Asia theater focus, although also some looks over at the 8th Army for a North Africa/Middle East flavor at times, and a few US stuff sneaking in. There is a pretty good array of core infantry type releases, as well as a variety of support options. For the Commonwealth in particular, SG is one of the few designers out there who really has done it as a focus, so one of the few places you can find strong options for stuff like Gurkhas or ANZACs. And in addition to the full models, a lot of their stuff has been broken out into 'bits' sets too, so good to look for whether planning a digital kitbash, or mixing printed pieces with your plastic sets.
Japanese flamethrower
One thing worth noting is that while they have multiple storefonts, the MMF site has a smaller selection than Wargaming3D. At the moment only the former is open, but once the latter relaunches, it is simply the better place to be looking to ensure you find what you seek.
Assembled AA Gun with crewmen
CONCLUSION
Generic artillery crewmen set, with empty hands so you can choose which shells will be used.
I want to like Studio Grozny, as they have a pretty nice selection, and in quite a few cases are, if not the only designer with a specific offering, at most one of the very few, and I'm always appreciative of folks who make it their focus to do the less frequently trafficked content. But all the same, I feel there are a number of flaws in the models. I wouldn't call them fatal, as whatever the issues these are serviceable models. Whatever flaws I'm identifying here, if SG is the only one who has what you are looking for, I wouldn't warn you off from even touching them. But at the same time, I just was not impressed by the figures I printed out, with poor pre-supports, and with their often stiff and ungainly posing, not to mention a poorly broken down AA gun model and the underwhelming terrain pieces. So while SG is filling in some very welcome gaps in what is available out there for 3D printing, I can't say that they would be my likely source for many models where another designer also has them available.
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I've had a few people reach out over about the issue of AI with regards to this subreddit, and whether a rule banning it could be implemented. And indeed, ever since adding a ban on it to the r/boltaction sub, its been on my mind but I haven't taken any actual action up to now.
Ultimately, the issue is that while on r/boltaction, a hard AI ban makes a lot of sense - I won't run through the whole deal again, but you can find the announcement post here - more factors exist here.
To be sure, some of the factors which are in play there are important here as well, and in the end of the day I believe *passionately* in the need to continue to center human creativity in online spaces, and the continued danger that increased usage of AI generated content poses for the future of internet communities.
But at the same time, while this subreddit does include highlighting completed prints and the amazing potential of 3D printing, part of the vision I had for this project when I launched it was to as complete an index as possible of available prints suitable for WWII gaming. And for better or for worse, complete does mean *complete*, with projects that leverage AI falling into that.
As such, my concern with a complete, blanket ban is two-fold, the first being that it does limit the actual reach of the project, but also second that in simply pretending AI-impacted creators don't exist, it might actually *mask that fact* from people who would not otherwise know.
As such, I'll be adding a rule which is context dependent, and will be dictated by the flair applied to the submission and/or submitter, with several prongs:
1: Usage of AI to manipulate photos for print highlights is simply banned. If caught, it will result in a removal of the submission, and may result in a ban for repeat offenses.
2: Users without a connection to a project submitting reviews or new campaign announcements are strongly encouraged to include information regarding any AI usage for the project. I understand that sometimes you might not be aware, so this is not something that will result in a ban if you fail to do so, but please try to check on that when submitting.
3: Any and all submissions using the Creator Promotion flag, or otherwise by a creator regarding their own work, MUST INCLUDE A DISCLOSURE OF ANY AND ALL AI USAGE. There will be a grace period of the next month or so where I'll set up Automod to remind people, but after that, if caught it will result in a warning and removal, and possibly a ban if repeated.
4: I don't care if you want to make negative comments about AI usage as long as it doesn't devolve into ad hominem, in which case it still will be a violation of Rule 1, so please don't do that. i.e. "AI is awful, a plague on humanity, and I wouldn't touch any project that uses it if my life depended on it"? Coming on a bit strong, but sure, whatever, I don't care. You're basically right. "AI is awful, a plague on humanity, and you're a terrible person for using it"? Please don't say the last bit. Thanks.
Ultimately, my hope with the rule being formulated in this way is that it will ensure that projects using AI aren't keeping this hidden, and by ensuring it is clearly marked, consumers are provided with the right information to make their choices based on their own opinions regarding AI usage and its place within 3D printing.
Hello everyone I am new here, I don’t have a 3d printer myself so often end up looking for one when I can’t find something, like I have recently just got the stl file in 1:100 for the British WW2 7” howitzer, I need it rescaled and printed in whatever the community here thinks would be the best, cause I have no idea. But back to the massive Dora railway gun is it possible to rescale this from 1:100 to 1/56, and then print it? I will pay however much is needed to get this as an objective marker for my massive gaming board.
I started a 14th army project for bolt action a few months ago and am eager for the new commonwealth book to come out. That said, as I look to run more campaigns and game boards featuring British troops in SE asia I noticed there aren't a lot of printable terrain for it. For some jungle huts and outposts there's excellent products like those by Deweycat. But for anything like a battle of Kohima or march on Rangoon, I'm struggling to find suitable models.
I reckon a good number of buildings will just be baroque and colonial buildings, especially in British and French colonial areas. But with the vast majority of terrain models being set in Normandy or soviet regions, It's hard to get my head around what would be suitable for SE Asia, or even the singapore, etc.
