What is the lead time for an order?
Total time between ordering and shipping should be between four and six weeks. This includes time to process your order, schedule it into a print-run, package and label, and ship the order to your country and address.
What about shipping, taxes, etc.
Shipping varies from about US$7 to US$15 depending on the destination country. See your cart for an exact number — the prices vary with currency fluctuations. Sales tax — where applicable — will be added for U.S. shipments. Value-added taxes (VAT) may (or may not) be collected by your postal carrier on receipt, which is known as “Delivery At Place”. Since my printing and shipping partner has no way of marking shipments as VAT-paid, this website cannot collect VAT at checkout and handle it for you. Most orders should be small enough to avoid customs duties, but you may want to check your local laws, e.g. avoid going over €150 for orders from the E.U.
What if my plane is damaged on receipt? Can I get a refund?
The packing of the models is very robust and problems should be very rare. Refunds are not available, but if you send a good picture and explanation of the problem within a few days of receipt, you can get a reprint of the same model.
Can I see some photos of actual prints?
Sure, just visit https://www.greatwarplanes.com/product-tag/photo-available and look through the galleries of those models. The selection is pretty limited right now; I would be happy if you could send me additional sharp, well-lit photos to add to the galleries.
Are these miniatures more expensive than the old color prints from Shapeways?
Somewhat, but consider 1) Shapeways wasn’t charging enough to stay out of bankruptcy; 2) These color prints are better quality than the FCN12 Shapeways prints; 3) These prints seem to be shipped and wrapped more carefully; 4) I have to leave some buffer for currency fluctuations and to cover credit card transaction fees, website fees, etc.
Why do you not ship to all countries?
To avoid accounting complications, I avoid shipping to countries if they collect a Value-Added Tax (VAT) and they do not have a threshold to exceed before worrying about it. Shipping to those countries may involve a lot of paperwork, fees, and even having a designated agent inside those countries. E.U. countries are an exception to this.
What game are these miniatures made for?
Wings of Glory is the most popular WWI aero game currently, but these miniatures have also been used with Blue Max/Canvas Eagles, Aerodrome, and others.
Where can I get plane cards, flight stands, altitude pegs, maneuver cards, etc.?
You can find unofficial plane cards in the galleries and on the Wings of Linen WIKI. There are stands, pegs, and various mounting systems available from third-party vendors. For instance, check out Rival Sky Games for custom, laser-etched bases. Maneuver cards remain a copyrighted property of Ares Games, but there are friendly people on the Wings of War Aerodrome who can get you print-it-yourself card decks in various formats.
How are my planes mounted to the stand?
Full-color miniatures from Reduced Aircraft Factory (RAF) come with a built-in mounting peg compatible with Wings of Glory stands. The peg is designed for a fairly tight fit; you can file it down slightly if you prefer a looser fit. If you have your own mounting system, you can cut off that peg with a hobby razor saw.
RAF also offers paintable, single-color resin miniatures. Since a lot of people who paint miniatures also have their own mounting system, paintable miniatures do not come with a peg. However, sets of pegs should become available here in the shop, and with luck their design will be available for download for those with their own 3D printers.
What sources do you use for your full-color paint schemes?
It varies from Aeronaut books, Windsock Datafiles, Wingnut Wings instructions, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series, Osprey Aviation Elite Unit series, Flying Machines Press books, internet sources, and others. Color-matching is done using the Methuen Handbook of Color and a Nix bluetooth color sensor.
Why don’t you replicate some of the popular and rare Ares models, like the Red Baron’s triplane?
While I realize the second-hand prices of some of the out-of-print Ares models is sky-high, it is RAF policy to avoid repeating a model that is already in the Ares catalog. After all, it was Nexus and then Ares that did all the work to bring Wings of Glory to our hobby shops and gaming tables. Perhaps that will change someday if Ares drops the line altogether.
Can you do WWII, inter-war, or pioneer aircraft?
Alas, my hands are full with World War I! There are several WWI planes I’d still like to cover as paintable models, and there’s a much longer list of paint schemes and planes to cover as full-color models. Covering WWII would also mean buying a second small library of reference books.
What are the differences between the paintable materials?
Grey Nylon is printed with HP Multijet Fusion technology. The surface is very slightly rough and matte, but the model is very strong. The material is slightly porous and some people like to “fill and smooth” it with a coating of paint, paper glue, or floor wax before adding final paint and decals, but it will look fine to the naked eye if you skip that step. Shapeways called this material “Gray PA12”.
Grey Resin is printed from a liquid resin. The surfaces are very smooth and shiny — very high quality — but the model may have some slight excess material (flash) at the edges and the points where supports were attached, like a styrene model from the hobby store. You can probably remove excess material with a hobby knife or file. It’s also more brittle, so bending or dropping of the model may result in broken struts or parts. It does tend to be cheaper than the other materials. You may find slight warping of the wings with Grey Resin prints, but you can correct that by heating the model with a blow dryer and straightening the wings before the model cools back to room temperature. (Since it doesn’t take a lot of heat to do this, I would not recommend leaving Grey Resin prints in a parked hot car.)
Who is your printing partner?
For twelve years, Shapeways was the RAF printing partner, but they went bankrupt in July 2024. RAF now partners with shop3d.io.