About the Company

DXM which stands for Double Excellent Models was started by a group of modelers in Taipei, Taiwan. The group started manufacturing decals in 2010 covering a broad range of aircraft including an extensive list of Japanese air command meets.

What’s on the Sheet?

This sheet covers fabled Grim Reapers squadron of VF-101 anniversary previously of VF-52. This is a surprising feat as the Navy usually does not rename squadrons after disestablished units. The Grim Reapers operated primarily the F-14 Tomcat and has recently converted to the F-35C at Eglin AFB Florida. The aircraft covered are as followed:

Roy Sutherland has been around for a bit, providing resin details we never knew could exist, but now do because of his commitment to improving basic products. This set is one of four that I used on the new (but old) Revell B-1B… they are in Roy’s “Barracudacast” resin accessories branch of his company. On to the review!

This set is comprised of eight Main wheel and tire assemblies, and two Nose wheel and tire assemblies for the B-1B. Sidewall letterngdetail is provided, and the tread is fantastic and deep like the actual high-speed radials used on the Bone. The original release of this kit back in 1983 contained styrene wheels with rubber tires. We know how well that works over time… so did Revell… so about 10 years or so ago, a couple of re-releases before this one, a set of styrene tire halves were provided to replace the rubber versions. Problem was, they weren’t accurate, being more balloon-like with almost no tread. Sometimes ya can’t win as a manufacturer.

History

The British 6 Pounder Anti-Tank gun was manufactured in the US, in 1942. In early 1943, the US Army adopted it for their use and called it the 57mm Anti-Tank gun M1. The version adopted for the army was modified and supplied to the army with a modified towing hitch and “Combat” wheels. Most branches of the US Army considered the weapon as too heavy and it was also hampered by the lack of ammunition. In 1943 only simple armor piercing ammo was manufactured. It wasn’t until late 1944 before adequate AP ammunition was made available. The M1 could penetrate 75mm of armor angled at 30 degrees at a distance of 3000 meters. In spite of the shortcomings, by early 1944 the M1 had become the standard towed anti-tank gun of the US Army Divisions. The prime mover for the M1 57mm was the Dodge WC-63 and the White halftrack. Over 10,000 M1’s were built for the US Army and 4,242 for the British Army. The M1 was also used by the Free French and Russian armies.

Roy Sutherland has been around for a bit, providing resin details we never knew could exist, but now do because of his commitment to improving basic products. This set is one of four that I used on the new (but old) Revell B-1B… they are in Roy’s “Barracudacast” resin accessories branch of his company. On to the review!

This set is comprised of four sets of exhaust augmentor tubes, four augmentor flame holders, four sets of exhaust nozzles without turkey feathers, and three sets of support arms sufficient to detail all four nozzles. It is relatively simple in concept, but requires some mastery of measurement, plastic removal on parts, and care with removal of the support arms from the casting block. Roy also offers PDF instructions for those who need larger versions on his website.

Wanting to make your P-51D just a bit different by showing the elevators in action? Aires has come to the rescue with a beautiful set to replace the horizontal tail surfaces for the North American P-51D Mustang. There are no supplied instructions; you simply swap out the kit provided plastic parts with the new Aires replacements. These Aires parts are specific replacements for the kit parts found in the Tamiya series of P-51D kits.

Aires has molded the stabilizer and elevator perfectly in light grey resin with no apparent bubbles. The Aires stabilizer and elevator are supplied on a single resin sprue with thin resin attachments to the parts that should minimize any cleanup.