Aviattic Website

[moon puppy]

I'm just going to copy the newsletter direct. Hope he doesn't mind.

Some good - and bad - news..

Firstly, the second attempt at the screen-printed Pfalz decals was successful, registration and detail captured beautifully and they should arrive with me any day now. I can at last start distributing the Pfalz kits to those good souls that pre-ordered it, starting next week. It will take many weeks to process the orders in the order they were taken. If you are not interested in some plain talking regarding the trials and tribulations of a small modelling company and the current situation I find myself in, please ignore the rest of this newsletter. Closure of Aviattic.com site My partnership/relationship with the self-styled 'serial entrepreneur', Christian Smekens, has ended. For legal reasons I cannot publicly explain all the reasons but as of Friday 16th February midnight (GMT) the site he built using the Aviattic name www.aviattic.com will cease to be. The domain name 'Aviattic.com' is owned by me and was lent to this venture, thinking it was in my best interests. The .com site was originally devised as a platform to help me retrieve European customers lost to Brexit import and export regulations. This relationship started in the best faith. Christian is a successful, retired businessman and, at last, I thought I could move the Aviattic brand forward with some financial support. His enthusiasm for my products was convincing and infectious and he had done much good work promoting them to European friends. The site soon morphed into a WW1 modelling megastore, designed with no input from me, that merely stocked my products (provided at discounted trade rates) along with a great selection of 'the best of the best' in the field of WW1 aircraft modelling. A worthy concept I have championed with my Aviattic products for years and would have rolled out myself, had my finances allowed. Many thought that this was my site but Christian was adamant it was not confusing (despite many puzzled emails I have received over the months) and was helping to grow my brand.. The Aviattic name and reputation provided a 'foot in the door' to the market and my loyal customer base. Our new, supposedly joint, venture has turned out to be far from the 50/50 partnership in a new company that he originally promised. As our relationship has deteriorated he is now choosing not to stock Aviattic products in those future web-store plans. I offered him the opportunity to switch domain names for the website, which would have meant an easy transition for customers but this does not sit with his master plan and so he has declined. A similar store will be announced by him later in the year under a new name. All www.aviattic.com transactions made by that Friday deadline of midnight GMT will be honoured by Christian. I ask that you do not bombard Christian with questions reading this split. He is a busy man. EU customer's Pfalz kits will revert to being dispatched by me from the UK and I will be contacting those customers to come to a solution regarding the handling fees that may be incurred as they are delivered to you. In a bid to retain my EU friends as Aviattic.co.uk customers I will soon be offering free shipping within the EU to partly offset these unfortunate charges. Details will be made known on the site soon. I plan to go back to where I was before I met Mr.Smekens. I will continue with the usual, appreciated, Aviattic diligence, attention to accuracy and integrity. I will return to my concept for 'jewel-like' exquisite kits, who's engineering and presentation can appeal to old and new fans of early aviation. I will continue to innovate with new decal and accessories projects - and hope that you will carry on supporting me at www.aviattic.co.uk and through the Patreon on that journey. There is much coming to fruition in 2024 and I very much look forward to sharing it with you. I will move on from this unfortunate episode, life has its 'ups and downs'. I may have been naive in a trusting, business sense but prefer to live and work with honesty and integrity. Money isn't everything.. Bye for now, Richard

So let's make sure we support Aviattic and buy direct. Richard has some great products for us crazy enough to try those whacky flying machines.