Silhouette Portrait 2

[MustangManiac]

Hello everyone,

 

 

I have a few questions before pulling the trigger on purchasing one of these. I believe I may get one of these from my wife for my birthday next month so I want to tell her everything I need/want to do this correctly and don't have to beg to spend money later.

 

1. What software do you guys use for the design of masks? I was thinking the Designer Studio package, but is there other stuff you guys use that's better than what's offered by Silhouette?

2. Where's the best place to get one from? Did you guys just get one from Silhouette America themselves or does someone else have a better deal?

3. Where's the best place to get the masking material from?

4. Do I want to use Oramask 810 or Oramask 810S material? What's the real difference?

I appreciate any information you guys can share with me on making the best purchase and knowing I get what I need for my birthday the more details I can give my wife the better chance I have of getting what I need for this.

 

 

Thanks in advance!

Brady

[mozart]

Brady, there have been several threads fairly recently about the use of Silhouette cutters with discussions ranging from the basic to the advanced, in fact Gaz has one going at the moment in General Discussion.  Might be worth search first to see if they answer your questions.

[MustangManiac]

OK thanks for the info Max. I really have only found an answer to one of my questions above by trying to comb through everyone else's posts though. It looks like everyone favors the Design studio upgrade package from Silhouette. Other than that I'm still looking for answers to my questions.

 

Thanks,

Brady

[mozart]

Ok Brady. I'm in the UK so I can't help you with supplies etc, but for what it's worth I use Oramask 810, it does the job perfectly well but I have no knowledge of the other stuff. I also use the Silhouette Designer edition, again it works well for me but then I'm a simple man!  

[Durangokid]

I'll try to help you if I can..

 

1.  I use Inkscape to draw my decals, it's a great program and it's free to use.  I had never used a Vector based draw program before but with the help of youtube videos, I have been able to muck my way through it fairly easily.  I think there may be a way to draw them in the silhouette software but I can't give you advise there.  The one disadvantage to using vector art is you have to upgrade the silhouette software to import them.  You can save them as dxm file in Inkscape but I have been having problems importing the image into the silhouette software so I may end up upgrading myself.

 

2. I bought mine at Amazon, at the time it was the best price and I have an Amazon card that gives me 5% cash back.

 

3/4.  I use Tamiya masking sheets instead of vinyl that I buy on Amazon too.  I think it's just a preference thing for me.

 

I can send you a link to the youtube videos if you are interested in learning the Inkscape program.  Hope this helps, either way I think you will love it.  It was a big purchase for me at the time but it has been completely worth it.

 

Bryan

 

[MustangManiac]

Hi Bryan,

 

Thanks for the information. I'd be interested inseeing those youtube videos.

 

Thanks,

Brady

[MustangManiac]

On 6/2/2019 at 2:51 AM, mozart said:

Ok Brady. I'm in the UK so I can't help you with supplies etc, but for what it's worth I use Oramask 810, it does the job perfectly well but I have no knowledge of the other stuff. I also use the Silhouette Designer edition, again it works well for me but then I'm a simple man!  

 

Thanks Max! 

I guess I was just kind of puzzled what the difference was between Oramask 810 and 810S I've heard of some people swear by one or the other. 

[LSP_Kevin]

1 hour ago, MustangManiac said:

 

Thanks Max! 

I guess I was just kind of puzzled what the difference was between Oramask 810 and 810S I've heard of some people swear by one or the other. 

 

There's a very handy group on Facebook called The Cutting Edge, dedicated to making your own paint masks for modelling:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheCuttingEdgeModelersGroup/

 

Guys in the know there swear by 810, claiming that 810S is far less suitable.

 

Kev

[MustangManiac]

19 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

There's a very handy group on Facebook called The Cutting Edge, dedicated to making your own paint masks for modelling:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheCuttingEdgeModelersGroup/

 

Guys in the know there swear by 810, claiming that 810S is far less suitable.

 

Kev

That's good to know! 

 

Thanks Kev!

 

Brady

[Out2gtcha]

Ive not really ever experimented w/ Oramask 810S, but I have a fairly large roll of Oramask 810 and it does work the bees knees for paint masking...............with one small caveat I might add:

 

- If it can at all be helped,  design and finalize your masks and import them into the Silhouette software, saving it in the Silhouette software file type ready to be cut. 

- Do *not* cut the masks out until the 11th hour ideally.  The later in the process you cut the masks, the less you risk what I refer to as "post cut shrinkage".

What I mean by that is generally Oramask 810 is laid out on very large rolls, and the rolls generally have some pre-shrunk tension in them to hold the material to the backing. When you cut paint masks out of Oramask 810, the clock can start ticking,  because the cuts you make can release some of the inherent built up tension in the sheets of 810, and the nice clean, tiny gaps between the positive and negative parts of the mask can start to widen to the point of unsuitability for painting. 

 

The condition can be seriously exacerbated by heat, or just warm temperatures where the masks are being kept. I know this as I have done a few experiments after finding a couple of sets I made with ginormous gaps in them. The ones I stored in my cool, dark store room survived with minimal gap expansion, and the ones I test made and put in my modeling room with the heat on developed 1 - 5mm gaps on nearly all the gaps between mask parts. 

 

Dont get me wrong, I still love using Oramask 810, as it is stretchy,  conforms to concave/convex shapes, and is to a point, reusable.   Its just something to keep in mind when you cut out your masks. 

[mozart]

Useful tip Brian, thank you. 

[MustangManiac]

Yes Brian,

 

Thank you for the tip on the material.

 

Brady

[Durangokid]

Great info guys and thanks for the link Kev!

 

 

On 6/3/2019 at 12:47 PM, MustangManiac said:

Hi Bryan,

 

Thanks for the information. I'd be interested inseeing those youtube videos.

 

Thanks,

Brady

 

Hey Brady, here is the info for the Inkscape vector program.  There are some other programs like Illustrator but it is expensive.  I use Inkscape since it's free...