Description
This is a paintable 1:144 scale model of an Ansaldo A.1 Balilla. Since many painters choose their own mounting system, no peg is included on the plane. Pegs can be purchased separately in the Accessories section of this catalog.
Though the prototype for the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla (“Hunter”) flew in late 1917, there followed a series of adjustments, each of which required another pass through formal testing. By July 1918 the focus was on promotional photographs with famous aces, though 1600 Balillas had been ordered back in January. The first planes reached 91ª Squadriglia on 28 June 1918. Pilots found them difficult to handle and concluded they were not ready for front-line use. There followed one plane here and one plane there, and attrition was high enough to match distribution to the point that only a single Balilla was on 70ª Squadriglia strength at the Armistice. Thirteen A.1s had been delivered in the first half of 1918 and 153 in the rest of the year.
A.1s were purchased by Poland after the war but delays and distribution problems continually arose and order volumes continually dropped. Latvia, the Soviet Union, and others experimented with the Balilla but the planes rarely lasted long, even in a training capacity. The full list includes Argentina, El Salvador, Greece, Honduras, Latvia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, the Soviet Union, Turkey, Spain, the United States, Uruguay, and Yemen.
For more data and gaming info on this plane, see https://linen.miraheze.org/wiki/Ansaldo_A.1_Balilla.
Shipping: Shipping varies from about US$7 to US$15 per order, depending on the destination country. See your cart for an exact number — the prices may vary with currency fluctuations. Orders over US$300 may get free shipping (but see the note on mixed materials).
Mixed Materials: Nylon prints are shipped from a different factory than resin prints, so if you place an order with a mix of Nylon and Resin, you will be charged shipping for each material, and each will arrive separately.
Taxes: 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”. Unfortunately, since my printing and shipping partner has no way of marking shipments as VAT-paid, this website cannot collect VAT on your behalf.
Customs: Most orders should be small enough to avoid customs duties, but you may want to check your local regulations. If duties are due, they may be collected by your postal carrier. E.U. customers may be able to avoid duties by keeping their order under €150.
No refunds are available, because your order is custom-printed when it is received. There is no inventory or stock to which it can be returned.
Reprints are available for planes damaged during shipping. See https://www.greatwarplanes.com/refund_returns/ for details.
Grey Resin: Models printed in Grey Resin material are printed with sprue-style supports while they are printed. The supports are removed in the factory before shipping. But be aware that some of the supports might be missed if they are mistaken for plane parts, and some of the attachment points might need smoothing before painting. I have seen good results — with almost no visible leftovers — in test prints. But this may not be universal because it depends on whoever is operating the printer the day your miniature is printed.
Bent Wings: Due to the need to protect miniatures during shipping, the miniatures may arrive with wings that are not perfectly straight (or, in the case of wings with dihedral, at the right angle)¹. If the warping is too severe, or if correcting it results in a broken plane, you can apply for a reprint as outlined above. To correct modest warping, you can heat the model with hot water or with a blow-dryer until the wings become pliable, straighten them, and then cool the model with cool water or room-temperature air. (I have used the blow-dryer method with good success.) I do not know what temperature is best — you’ll have to experiment, starting on the low side and using only gentle pressure. You just want to make the model pliable without it melting (too hot) or breaking under gentle pressure (too cool). Please use the normal precautions you’d use with any operation with hot water, air, and plastic.
Since — as you have gathered — you can bend the model when it’s under high temperature, I would suggest avoiding leaving your prints in a very hot environment such as a locked car under the summer sun.
¹ This was especially true during a period when the planes were shipped in a clamshell-plastic case, which should no longer happen.
