Paint Masks - making your own

[Michael931080]

I'm thinking about making my own paint masks for the kits I have in my stash and was wondering if anyone has used the cricut machine?

I want to make different insignias in different scales but not sure about doing this.  This is strictly for personal use and not for business purposes.  Also how do make the different scales from say 1/32 down to possibly 1/144?  I'm thinking stars and bars as well as some foreign air forces.

Would really appreciate all feedback from everyone please.  ☺️

[KiwiZac]

I'm tagging in as I'm hopefully getting into a position to get my own equipment to do this and I'm also very curious.

[LSP_Kevin]

There is in fact an entire website dedicated to this cause:

 

https://www.scalemodelpaintmasks.com/

 

It also has a library of already-designed files you can download and cut on your own machines.

 

Kev

[Michael931080]

Thanks for the link!  Going to definitely read this.

[csavaglio]

I personally like the Sillouette machines.  The Portrait series does everything I've ever needed for modeling and automotive stuff, but some folks like some of the extra features of the Cameo. 

I haven't used the Cricut machines, so I can give positive or negative info on them.  Sillouettes software is intuitive and easy to get going and there's plenty of website and video how-tos. 

 

Once you have the art drawn, downloaded, or traced, you can resize it however you like by typing in dimensions or dragging the corner like you would a window. 

 

[MikeC]

I use a Silhouette Portrait 3. Great little machine. 

I understand that the big difference between Silhouette and Cricut is that the latter requires you to store your finished files on your dedicated space on their servers, and there is a limit on how much space you've got. (Caveat: this may be out-of-date info and/or imperfect understanding on my part, so do your own research). The Silhouette, on the other hand, is quite happy to let you store stuff on your own system or your own Google Drive/MS Onedrive/local drive/wherever you choose, so you are less limited in what you can keep.

[Out2gtcha]

I'm (literally) using the -1 Silhouette machine I got un a trade from LSP, right before the 2017 NATs here in Omaha.

 

Its the very first cutter machine they put out, and I've upgraded the software several times now, and it still works like clockwork.