JASDF Jets Decals
F-4EJ, F-15J, F-2A

DXM, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Mark Davies

HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Squadron.com

DXM, which stands for “Double Excellent Model” is a Taiwanese company whose brief company profile states “We are all modelers who got model addiction. We set up DXM Workshop to design decals and detailing part of scale model. DXM Workshop is pleased to offer wholesale pricing to dealers or resellers.” The first thing I did on reading this was to remind myself that DXM’s English is way better than my Mandarin, and I suspect this applies to most readers here. The slightly quaint intro belies their high quality product range.

At first glance DXM’s website suggests an almost total focus on the modern Japanese Air Self Defence Force (JASDF). However, a closer look at their product lines across the four popular aircraft scales of 1/32, 1/48, 1/72, and 1 1/44 reveals quite a diverse smattering of decals for other services and time periods.  Some examples include Korean War FAA Seafires, USN F-14’s, French AF Mirage 2000’s, ROCAF P-51D’s, and RAN & Iraqi AF Sea Furies. There are also small detail sets for the Mitsubishi F-2B that provides a turned aluminium pitot and PE brass seat harnesses. I did find their website to be less than intuitive, and it takes a bit of effort to find things.

Anyway onto the decals for review here...

Each set comes in a heat-sealed cellophane bag.  My immediate thought was that this type of packaging is less user-friendly than the ubiquitous resealable plastic bag most decal companies use. It’s not a deal-breaker by any means; but it’s nice to be able to examine a decal sheets and return it to air-tight storage. Also, once a decal sheet is partially used there are often several small scraps to store with the remains of the main sheet, something an open bag is less than ideal for.

The review subjects in this case are all JASDF, and include ACM 2103 in their titles. I assume that this might refer to an Air Combat Manoeuvring exercise the JASDF held last year, but I may be wrong on this point.

JASD subjects perhaps have a limited following outside of Japan at least, but nonetheless offer some very appealing and eye-catching schemes. This is certainly the case of the F-15J and F-2A options, with the F-4EJ schemes reviewed here being a bit less radical, but still colourful.

In each case the decals come with colour printed instructions in English. These are also downloadable from DXM’s website, which is handy if you wish to enlarge them. This will be helpful, if not essential, given the plethora of stencilling each sheet contains. Interestingly, the stencilling is identified in the instructions as being either standard stencilling or TAC-meet related (which would seem to reinforce what the “ACM 2103” is about). The instructions include paint colour cross-references to the Mr. Color and Humbrol paint ranges, and FS-595. The decals are printed by Cartograf and appear to be of superb quality; as we have come to expect from this company. 

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Thumbnail panels:

The subjects covered by each sheet are:

• F-4EJ Kai Super Phantom:

• 301st Sqn, JASDF, 87-8408;
• 302nd Sqn, JASDF; 97-8426; and
• 302nd Sqn, JASDF; 07-8435.

• F-15J Eagle:

• 201st Sqn, JASDF, 72-8880;
• 203rd Sqn, JASDF, 42-8832; and
• 203rd Sqn, JASDF, 72-8895.

• F-2A Viper Zero:

• 3rd Sqn, JASDF, 13-8557;
• 3rd Sqn, JASDF, 83-8554; and
• 3rd Sqn, JASDF, 13-8558.

These are superbly produced decals with good instructions, although I would recommend downloading the PDF versions for easy enlargement. The product packaging could be improved by replacing sealed cellophane bags with a more user-friendly re-sealable option however.

These three sets are highly recommended for fans of the JASDF, or those who like colourful artwork on their jets.

Thanks to DXM for the samples.

Text and Images Copyright © 2015 by Mark Davies
Page Created 12 March, 2015
Last updated 13 March, 2015

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