M7 Priest print design by Foolyo89

Hello everyone and welcome to another review /r/PrintedWWII review. As I dive into 3D printing, the lack of extensive documentation and reviews of what is good, what is bad, and what works with care, has been vexing to me, so my hope is to provide a little bit of what I wish was readily available for me when I started!

Today's review is on Foolyo89. They are a designer who has their work freely available on Thingiverse, with a focus on 28mm vehicles. Although no longer particularly active, their back catalog includes a bit over a dozen designs.

Printing

Jeep printed and assembled. Nothing like a zoomed in photo to show how much stringing you really have...

Most models were done on a Prusa Mk3S FDM machine, using Prusa Slicer to prepare the models. A .4mm nozzle was used for all prints, with a mix of .2mm and .1mm layer heights, and all of the models printed using eSun PLA filament. Additionally I printed one model in resin with an Elegoo Mars 3 Pro, sliced in Chitubox using default settings, and printed with Phrozen 4k resin.

Chi-Ha tank in my personal ideal breakdown, although not all the vehicles followed this pattern.

Although these models are clearly modeled on the assumption they will be used for FDM printing, they are unfortunately not quite optimized for printing on an FDM machine, something which isn't helped by an absolute hodgepodge of approaches in how the models are broken down and grouped.

Jeep broken down into its parts. Note how the hull is split in the middle, and also the necessity of the brim for many of the small pieces like tail lights.

In some cases, the pieces are done far too small, ensuring a poor print due to the necessity of a brim. In others, the largest surface isn't quite flat which complicates overhangs. Supports are an absolute necessity for most of the prints, and I would strongly suggest playing around with the orientation and organic supports for larger parts. A good quality print is possible with these designs, but you'll need to take a little time to make sure you are setting your printer up for success.

Type 98 gun. Brim is required for printing in my estimation, but printing with a brim sucks. It is nominally an FDM design, but very delicate at points.

While the one print I did in resin came out fine, it should be noted that most of the files are supplied with small parts all grouped as one file, so resin printing may not always be optimal without first splitting the files up more.

M3 Scout Car printed in resin. The better quality shows some of the limitations of these designs, including slightly stark details.

Models

Ha-Go broken down into its printable parts. Note the five plates which print flat to allow better detailing by the printer, and then are attached onto the various places on the tank surface. An interesting approach which I feel worked decently well.

I printed out a selection of Foolyo89's models and on the whole they are a mixed bag. To be sure, I would say that these are decent models. Being optimized for FDM printing, the details are lacking compared to some creators, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as overly fine detail can muck up the surface of an FDM model in any case. In the case of one model, there is also a very interesting approach which I think achieves its aim of preserving details, by printing the surfaces 'plain' and then additional plates printed flat on the print bed which glue on to the tank for more detail. And of course, the price-point can't be beat. If you're looking for the free options, you'll probably be ok with these models.

Ha-Go assembled with the plates places onto the model. Details are a bit nicer when printed flat, and they can cover up some seams too.

But I fear I might be damning with faint praise, since there are quite a few issues. As noted, there is a notable inconsistency in how the model design is approached, which in turn means there are so many nits to pick at. For instance, the Chi-Ha I printed, which on the whole was the best laid out design, being broken down into only four pieces — turret, hull, tracks — nevertheless has a serious fault by lacking any sort of peg system to properly place the tracks. Meanwhile the Ha-Go did have pegs to fit the tracks together, but used a rather odd choice in design which split the hull into two parts, without a good peg-hole system to fit those together.

The Ha-Go hull splits into two pieces, but both have this weird hole and then a diamond shaped spanner which fits in. The spanner isn't the same length though, so it doesn't automatically align. And why not just design a peg on the bottom part?

Some gripes perhaps would delve into the nit-picky — why doesn't the M3 Scout Car include a gun even though there is one in the picture — but it does end up feeling like every single model has something about it I can complain about. Designing for a good FDM design means having to make certain changes, and accept various limitations, but in some ways it feels like the choices were the wrong ones, as the way models are split up clearly was a decision made for FDM printing, but just don't seem to have been the right one and only lead to frustration with the final product.

Front wheel of the M3 Scout Car needs to be scaled down slightly. Jams against the wheel well.

Selection

Assembled Chi-Ha, a reasonably fine looking model.

By my count, Foolyo89's collection offers 19 different vehicles for WWII, split between several factions, and mostly the 'big names'. That is to say, you get a Japanese Chi-Ha, an American Sherman, a German Stug III, and so on. It fairly random, and likely just reflects whatever they felt like taking a crack at. And although they have been active in the past 6 months, the last WWII design uploaded dated to 2020, so it is unlikely that we'll see more in the near future.

Conclusions

As I said earlier in the review, the designs from Foolyo89 are a mixed bag at best. There are quite a few faults that I see in the designs and the final products, and there wasn't a single model from my tests that I would call really well done. Even just considering them as FDM optimized designs, there are better out there, and even just considering the free tier, this wouldn't be my first stop. The one really neat design quirk, printing detailed plates to place on the tank after, is actually pretty cool, but only some of them utilize this so it isn't exactly a strong selling point.

Side view of the Chi-Ha and tread. Notice no pegs, holes, or any sort of guidance for precise placement, indicative of the numerous small problems with the designs over all

At the end of the day though, it is hard to be too tough on a designer when they are just putting their designs out there for free. Those people are awesome, and I feel bad for tearing down the designs, but it is what it is... As far as a final verdict goes, if you are looking for free FDM designs, I would say don't write these off entirely, but do shop around. Your cost is zero, so check out the different options, put them all in the slicer, and see which ones actually look the best. Foolyo89 isn't going to be winning that every time, but still worth having in the race.

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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 this review 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