Background and Historical Notes

From DXM Hobby Studio’s Decal Notes

These decal sheets provide some very colorful markings for five of the U.S. Navy’s F-1B/J Phantom squadrons, covering markings from the years 1968 – 1976. There is one a/c from VMFA-115 ‘Silver Eagles’ aboard the USS Forrestal in 1981, two a/c from squadron VMFA-451 ‘Warlords’ and two a/c from VF-96 ‘Fighting Falcons’.

This 1/48^th scale sheet is intended for use with either the Academy, Hasegawa, Italeri, Revell, Tamiya or Zoukei Mura kits. That allows you to complete either an F-4B or F-4J from one of six alternate kits.

As you first enter the DXM website, you learn several items of interest, including just how to navigate their large catalog of decal sheets (in several possible scales) which is not the simplest to navigate through, a straightforward company history (a Taiwan based ‘group of model addiction guys’), their full name stands for ‘Double Excellent Model’, and a nicely illustrated YouTube video explaining their suggested decal application methodology (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFzBgbCiEqY).

DXM also provides a basic roadmap for successfully application of their decals.

1. After painting kit, suggest spraying with clear coat on surface of kit, and it will help decals fit the kit more.
2. Cut the design out of decal sheet and place them in clean water for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
3. Remove them from water. Need to check, It will be ready to apply if you use your finger to move design easily on bottom paper.
4. Keep design on bottom paper still, place decal on correct position where you want to apply. Please note, we suggest utilizing your fingertip on design and slide off bottom paper.
5. Push out excess water and any air bubble under decal by soft and clean cloth or cosmetic tips.
6. Suggest to wait for 24 hours after applying decals to spray final gross/semi-gross/ matt coating.

Initial Impressions of the DXM Hobby Studio Decals

As a fan of the ‘Warlords’ I was immediately interested in the blue nose F-4J CAG Bird BuNo153775 decals, though there are four additional a/c included.

Fit and Finish

DXM’s art work and printing is done by Cartograf of Italy. I am very impressed with these decals, and the colors are correct and true according to my photo research. There are two sheets of printed decals included in this package The registration of the decals is perfect, and the decals fit the model perfectly. I have attached six scanned images to illustrate the five colorful aircraft included on these sheets.

I cut out several of the F-4J decals from the large number of five Phantom aircraft included in this package, all of which are shown assigned to Carrier Air Wing 17 or CVW-9, and the carriers USS John F. Kennedy, USS George Washington, USS Enterprise or USS Constellation. I chose the VMFA-451 F-4J BuNo 153821 a/c markings for my application test and though I only used several of the markings. I will use another VMFA-451 CAG a/c F-4J BuNo 153775 with the blue radome for my full kit build.

I primed the model surface using grey Mr. Surfacer 1200 (#B-515:600). I began my decal test with an initial two airbrushed layers of Alclad II Lacquer’s Aqua Gloss Clear (#ALC 600). These decals worked beautifully, and I followed their suggested 24-hour delay before applying my final Testors Dullcoat Lacquer (#1160) finish. There were no issues and these decals, they are scaled to the kit and provide a colorful approach to an F-4J kit I have on my model bench. I used Microscale Micro Set #M1 to ease the decals into place and to snuggle them onto their final location,

These decals all fit in their intended locations, and I am sure they would with the other Academy, Hasegawa, Italeri, Revell, Tamiya or Zoukei Mura kits as well.

Recommendation

These decal sheets are highly recommended. As you can see from my previous notes, I found these decals easy to use, accurate in shape and size, very colorful and a pleasure to use. Try them and I believe you’ll be as impressed as I am.

I want to thank the DXM Hobby Studio for the opportunity to review these decals.