Product Review: Echelon Decals

 

 Echelon is one of those small (not so small anymore!) manufacturers with both skill and a real enthusiasm on their side. Based in Singapore, Echelon specialises in armour decals, mining World War II for rare and interesting Allied and Axis schemes, as well as investing considerable effort in documenting the US armour formations of Desert Storm and OIF. They have also created a unique range of reflective adhesive-foil die-cut parts to represent the driving mirrors of peace-time armoured vehicles, a more realistic option than the old silver paint can ever be.

Releases range from small, single-subject sheets, to large sheets with multiple subjects, accompanied by excellent full-colour instructions generated off computer printers. The great news is Echelon is one of those lines that some Asian dealers sell postage-free anywhere in the world, for instance Spearheads Frontier in Singapore (the originating source) and Lucky Model in Hong Kong, who stock the full range.

Featured above are a couple of their more compact offerings: one of their Desert Storm sheets, #356025, an M1A1 named ‘Atlas,’ a typical beast with chevrons and Tact Board, and the classic wolf’s head insignia (slightly puzzling to the casual glance, given that this vehicle belonged to ‘Tiger’ regiment). This is one of their small sheets, about 2” square, with a computer-generated 14 x 8 cm instruction sheet. The other, slightly smaller sheet, is a German WWII subject, a small collection of crosses and insignia for StuG IIIs on the Russian front, #356033, and you’ll note some decals are used.  

I used them last year on a Tamiya StuG III/G (35197) seen above, using markings for the StuG brigade of “Das Reich” at the Kursk Salient in summer 1943. I painted with Tamiya acrylics and the very thin, very strong decals went down perfectly without glosscoating, and with no silvering at all. They are a little glossy, some clear flat before application would help with this. I have a late Panzer IV on my build list for this year and I’ll certainly be using Echelons as their quality of manufacture and depth of research make them an obvious solution.

If you’re after unusual subject choices, manufactured to full professional quality, at competitive prices and even postage-free anywhere in the world, Echelon is fast becoming a range of choice. I certainly have them in my stash!