Review of Leffler1999's 3D printing designs
Polish rifleman from Leffler1999
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 Leffler1999. They post their freely available designs on Thingiverse, and focus on figures from very uncommon corners of the WWII period, including minor powers and neutrals. I don't believe they publish files to sites other than Thingiverse.
No models were provided by for this review (but they are of course free anyway).
Printing
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. I encountered no issues with printing, either from file issues or otherwise, with all the models printed coming out fine. Models are not provided with pre-supported versions, but they are decently sturdy figures, so I didn't find placement to be complicated or tough. The only care would be making sure not too many are placed on the bayonets which are the thinnest part.
Models
Various angles of Leffler1999 figures.
I think the best description I would offer of the Leffler models is serviceable. To be frank, it is hard to see them being anyone's first choice of figures as they do have their clear faults, but I don't want to be overly down on them either. They are sturdy models for the most part, and any criticisms need to also be tempered with the fact that they are free models as well, and often constructed by drawing on other open-source resources of 3d 'bits', and in that regards they are indeed quite impressive. For the level they are at, the details are nice, and I appreciate in particular there is a real obvious drive in the design to ensure unique and interesting looks.
But I nevertheless must also note some of the faults that I found. While the bulk of the models feel decently solid, there are still some small protrusions at points which are overly delicate. The bayonets I wish were a little sturdier, and the feathers-in-caps from the Poles I printed also seem to be in need of strengthening too compared to how the rest of the model was approached.
I also found the posing of the figures to be at times bizarre. There is no real logic to the positioning of the feet in some cases, with the only possible way to pose them being on a heavily sculpted base with notable changes in elevation. In the ones I printed out, this meant some rather weird positioning on their empty base which I'll need to fill in later when I add basing bits, and hope for the best. In a few cases though, even that seemed hard to manage it just isn't clear what the intention was for the specific angle.
The posing of the figures also isn't great. Many have some rather stiff positioning, but looking closer, there are some cases which go beyond merely 'stiff'. In particular is the case of the legs on several of the figures which seem to be twisted far beyond what is possible for a real human! Just how noticeable something like that would be at table distance is questionable, but it certainly is easy to spot close up.
That all said, as noted at the start, these are still perfectly serviceable figures, and they look fine next to other 28mm examples, and at table distance a great paint job can make up for a lot of little issues, so at least specifically for the printer on a budget, these still have some really worthwhile value in giving an avenue for a pretty unique looking force.
Leffler1999 figures compared to WLG Plastic, WLG Plastic, and WLG Metal.
In addition to the figures, I printed out one small artillery piece, which was decently well done. The biggest fault I would draw there is less with the specific details of the model then is is noting my usual pet-peeve of printing in only a single piece. A multi-part print with the wheels separate is usually preferable and not an option.
Selection
The biggest strength of Leffler's models is ultimately that for most of what they offer... they are it! Leffler has options for Latvia, Lithuania, Iran, Poles, Portuguese, and the Irish, and even for the Poles - the one nation which you can find much for elsewhere - he still manages to be fairly unique with the focus on the Podhale Rifle mountain troops, which I've never seen another print designer offer!
To be sure, the selections don't get too deep, with each nation having one or two infantry options - although usually each pose has multiple uniform detail options - and some limited support, but again, it is far beyond what anyone else has. Indeed, I feel very limited in what I would even offer as criticism there, as it feels like looking a gift horse in the mouth. It would be nice, I guess, for the Poles to have had a BAR option (although I confess that I don't know if that was part of the mountain troop TO&E), but yeah, this guy is out there just working on filling in some of the absolute most fringe niches out there, and that is cool as hell. How can you not love it?
Conclusions
An NCO or officer on the lookout for more figures coming in the future!
Leffler1999's figures are far from perfect. They definitely have faults, and don't quite shine compared to some offerings out there you can find. But those comparisons are also are largely against commercial designers, and context does matter. With so few options out there for freely available figures (as opposed to tanks, which have better availability for the most part), whatever their downsides, the models still deserve some real praise and doubly so for opening up new options which no one else is covering. I won't claim these are anything like a first stop for me, but all the same I wish there were a ton more Leffler1999s out there doing this, as the 3d printing community needs more people wit this kind of passion and a simple desire to do nothing more than share it with everyone.
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