Aviaeology Rising Again

[Crimea_River]

For those of you familiar with the quality decal sets from Aviaeology, you'll be happy to know that are rebooting their production and adding some new products. Got a newsletter today, partly reproduced here:

March 2025 Newsletter Production capability news & New releases, including revisions and upgrades​

It has been a while since we published a newsletter – 2018, by my reckoning. If you'd like to learn more about the personal side of this quiet period, I am considering including a brief message in a subsequent newsletter (circa May 2025). This will also contain a brief related item on the current status of our Etchsentials line of detail sets – what started out as photo-etched sets have been fully redesigned for 3D-printing. Production for most will coincide with our next newsletter and the balance in the one after that.

Decals! After a few inspired re-issues through 2023-2024 (see 1/32 scale Spitfire items below), we're now more actively rebooting our decal production, making this a good time to reconnect with newcomers (welcome!) and long-enduring repeat customers (some of you since 2006!) alike. While our long-established series – Decals & Docs (D&D), Colours & Codes (C&C), and Airframe Stencil Data Markings (ASDM) – will continue, we've now added Singles & Special Editions (S&S) to the mix. This new line offers a relatively flexible approach to purchasing markings you might need on a per-project basis. Our recent investment in a new high-resolution digital press makes this concept possible. This technology's near print-on-demand (nPOD) capability allows us to offer most S&S subjects in Basic Set, Basic Set+, Full Set, or Full Set+ forms (see below). You decide what you need. The general idea here is to choose a basic set if you prefer to paint national markings using masks, or a full set if not. Initial S&S releases draw on the extensive range of subject aircraft depicted in many of our long-sold-out D&D sets. While the intent is to continue producing new, reprinted, or upgraded Decals & Docs, the time and energy involved in these research-intensive multi-subject sets mean that fresh output can only continue at a snail's pace. Additionally, while ever-increasing production and freight costs for expert screen-printing have, among other factors, forced us to abandon our "all-scales" approach to D&D, the Singles & Specials concept means nearly all former and future subjects can remain available in all standard scales after their associated D&D sets have sold out. The new S&S line is also the perfect home for fresh new (to Aviaeology production) single-aircraft subjects – subjects dormant in a growing pile of research folders for far too long, waiting for some future D&D package to come fully together. Over time, a few unusual (for us) subjects will be covered as I dig into my personal modelling/profile art project files. In addition to S&S sets, the nPOD workflow will make it easier to maintain availability for our C&C and ASDM ranges. Printing these in small batches to approximate ongoing customer demand means we can eliminate the wait times that typically occur when the older versions of these sets are sold out. Please note that existing screen-print production artwork (sheet numbers have an AOD prefix) does need to be retooled to work correctly with our in-house digital (ADD prefix) workflow, so the build-up to improved availability will be incremental. Watch this space – we'll aim for a newsletter update every 6 to 8 weeks – and I promise they'll have a much shorter intro section and fewer new acronymns!

 

[fubar57]

Good stuff. I was on another site yesterday that showed what was offered

 

[Crimea_River]

New Japanese stuff I had not seen before.

 

[fubar57]

Neato.. We really need those.....and kits to put them on

 

[DDonSS3]

Looks like lots of good stuff to me. I'll need to get back to their site and see what's changed since I last checked it out.

 

[Crimea_River]

Site doesn't seem to have been updated but the newsletter said they are working on it.

 

[fubar57]

Just found my newsletter....in the trash, along with all my VMS updates Lots of cool decals coming for RCAF