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Welcome Andy, great intro! I hope you enjoy your delve into the model-making hobby, being able to make your own masks is so fulfilling and useful. There’s lots of advice here but if you need more, ask away. Max

Hi, welcome to our small corner of the online modelling world.

Hi Francis, Welcome to the forum. As Mozart says, there are no daft questions, so ask away. We've all gone through the initial stage, and for me anyway, it was a process of trial, error and learning, not least when I couldn't get my Portrait 3 to work, and eventually found I was loading the material (Artool Ultra Mask for me) in slightly the wrong place!

Welcome Francis, sorry the late response! It appears from some reports that the earlier machines, like my Cameo 2 and your recent purchase whilst they do fewer “tricks” actually produce better and more consistent results! Any questions, ask away…..there are no daft ones! Max

Well - you are confirming my results! I am VERY happy with the Siser. The Portrait probably would have been fine for me - i have had a few bigger cuts but 8" would be sufficient for almost everything. Without knowing for sure the Siser is probably still the more accurate one - but obviously at a big premium over the Portrait. Based on my experience and what I have read since starting this venture i can't recommend the Camo 5 for this type of work. I'll try to do that - just very cumbersome to upload pictures or I would have done it already.

Welcome aboard, Francis! Kev

Hello all, I am a relocated brit, now based in Rotterdam. I drifted back to scale modelling after a 30-odd year break, building 1/48 WW2 era aircraft. I recently purchased a second hand silhouette cameo 3 to try to replace some roundel decals which disintegrated on contact with water, and while I was quite happy with my results for a first attempt, I would now love to find out how to use the thing properly, to hopefully improve my modelling skills. Apologies in advance, therefore, for any daft newbie questions! Best regards, Francis

Welcome aboard, Andy! Kev

Greeting from Canada. My name is Andy, and I’ve been building mostly model aircraft (preferably in 1/48th & 1/32nd— with the occasional venture into 1/35th armour and the odd ship model — ever since I helped (hindered at age 8 more like...lol) my grandpa build a model kit in England back in 1977 (an Airfix 1/24 Ju-87 Stuka kit ). I stepped away from the hobby for far too many years, but I’m now making a real effort to dive back in and start working through my growing stash of kits that are waiting for me to build. I’ve seen a lot of great articles and videos of modelers using Cricut and Silhouette machines to create custom paint masks, so I recently picked up a gently used Cricut Explore Air 2 to see if I can learn the ropes myself. Joining this site seemed like the perfect place to start! Looking forward to learning from everyone and hopefully sharing some progress along the way.

I'm late coming to this thread -- glad you found a solution after so much frustration. SO just for info: I have had nearly all models of the Silhouette cutters up to 4, and had great cuts ... until the 4. Problem with that machine was the same as yours. Sent the first one back, and the replacement had the same issue. In frustration I ordered an inexpensive Portrait 4 ... and was (and am) pleased as punch. All to say I wouldn't discount that your machine may have hardware tracking problems, including distortions depending on where on the page the cut is. As @Timbacat pointed out - lots of things churning inside the machine to make "simple" cuts as circles. Gene K

Glad to hear that you were able to get where you wanted to go with this, Henrik, and it certainly sounds like paying the higher price was worth it. Perhaps Silhouette's quality control isn't what it ought to be. Please post some of your results when you get a chance! Kev

I finally gave up, and just bought a Siser Juliet. My very first cut was small circles and text (2.5mm and 5 mm Diameter, and same height for text) on 810S. Without any adjustments and using a 45 degree blade, the results are clearly substantially better than my Silhouette Cameo Alpha. It also comes with a 60 degree blade that is supposed to be better than 45 for fine detail, so I believe the cuts can be even better. I am convinced i will be able to use the Juliet for my original purpose - Royal Danish Airforce roundels, split flags, and squadron numbers in 1/48 scale. The results might be good enough that i can do it in 1/72 scale. Yes - the Juliet is more expensive at ~$400 versus ~$225 for the Cameo. It is also seems like it is a lot better built - the Cameo feels very plasticky. There may be downsides with the software, but time will tell. I am VERY happy I made the switch, and will be very comfortable starting some of the original detailed schemes I had planned. PS: It is possible i just got a Cameo lemon. I have seen others complain about the Cameo 5 accuracy, but I saw cuts for some earlier Cameo versions that seemed better than mine.

Another familiar name: hi Jonners, good to see you here. Welcome aboard.

No, not an attack, thankfully. This was caused by the same premature database platform update that took out LSP and KLP (all of which are hosted on the same server). On the other hand, LSM and Model Ship World were taken out by an attack on the server they were both hosted on. Kev

Hi Pete, welcome.

Thanks Kev. Hopefully not an attempted attack, another instance of the outbreak of modelling site hacking (eg LSM) which seems to have broken out lately.

It's always well to remember that whilst there were and are official standards for fonts, they were not always followed. Unit codes during WW II were generally painted on at unit level, and there was a degree of variation. For example, on a Lancaster I'm doing (LL845/WS:L of IX(B) Sqn) the stroke ends on the "S" are cut off at an angle. Without wishing to seem to promote my own product thread, it does allow any modification needed. I daresay that those who know more about drawing software and file formats than I do can come up with other methods, and that's as it should be.

Hello and welcome from the UK.

I'm posting this here as this was suggested as the best place to start asking questions. If this would be better suited to the hardware forum, or somewhere else, I'll be happy to remove this and post it in a different place. I mostly build 1/72 scale planes (out of space considerations). I paint mostly with lacquers and solvent based acrylics (read Tamiya paints and similar brands). I've been actively researching what it would take to start painting my own markings (at least down to things like the 8" registration codes the RAF used to put on the sides of Spitfires and etc.). I know that stencils, thin "no step" lines, and etc. are likely just right out at the scale I work in. I have convinced myself that I'm OK with that limitation. My research has focused mostly on plotter cutters, but I did go, briefly, down the laser engraver rabbit hole. While it feels like the laser route might get me smaller, more accurate details, the limiting factors appear to be cost (the cheapest, capable, entry level machine I've found is significantly more than the most expensive plotter cutter I've looked at, then there's a big step up to the next level of sophistication) and the limitation that the most common masking materials (Oramask 810/810s and Artool Ultra Mask all contain PVC (which isn't good for the laser equipment or the user's health due to off-gassing hydrochloric acid and chlorine during the cutting process) and are therefore right out (leaving only things like masking tape (which pretty much apparently has the tendency to burn) and specialty, laser-safe films that I've not researched. I've pretty much focused on three plotter cutters: Silhouette Cameo 4 (a nice price, but it appears to be a generation behind) Silhouette Cameo 5 (just because it's the newest model, but as far as I can tell the enhancements this model received have little to do with the things I'd want to use it for) Siser Juliet (more than the Cameo 5, but not by that much, and it's resolution appears to be higher on paper) All appear to be capable machines with the Juliet frequently getting the nod for build quality and precision. The two Silhouette models would probably both need a third-party CB09 blade for the fine detail work. The Juliet comes with both the 45 and 60 degree blades, so no extra purchase there. It is my perception that Silhouette Design Studio is the more capable, more mature software, with a wider user base however I think I'm less bothered by that as I have access to and experience with Adobe Illustrator and a couple of other vector packages. So either way I'd likely only be in the machine's software package to queue jobs and things like that. That said, I also get the sense that there are alot of Silhouette and Cricut users on this forum, with Siser machines only showing up occasionally. (Or maybe I just didn't search long enough or with the right keywords.) So with that, lengthy (sorry), background, my questions come down to these: Am I barking up the wrong tree, or otherwise being delusional, thinking that I can get good results at the scale I work at? Is the answer really, save up more and buy a laser engraver or just stick to professionally cut masks? (If it's the laser cutter, are there recommendations on which masking film to use?) And lastly, if there's a feeling that I can do this with a plotter cutter, would you choose any of the machines I've researched? And if so which one? Do you have other suggestions? Thank you all in advance for any advice/input you may have!

Thanks Kev!

Welcome aboard, sir! The best place to ask all your questions is in the Q&A section. Kev

Hello from the not so sunny part of Northern California! I'm coming back to the hobby after taking the "long pause" when life, school, and then a career took precedent over quiet "me time" building marvelous flying machines. When I came back, I was amazed at how much has changed, and equally at how much has remained the same. I now know what I didn't when I was younger and have been prioritizing time for myself and set aside quiet periods for me to build and learn, learn and build and just generally enjoy a hobby that I always loved. Due to space considerations, I generally build 1/72 aircraft (but really admire the work of those who build the larger scales.) Something that always fascinated me was the idea of actually painting my own markings (at least partially because I don't really like decals, and I like applying them less). Couple that with the fact that I'm frequently drawn to paint schemes that don't really work well as decals, and you can probably do the math. Sooner or later I was going start looking at things like buying a cutting plotter, and toying with actually painting those schemes myself. I have a ton of questions and am hoping to learn from the experience that seems to be gathered here. I am coming to this as basically a blank slate. I haven't purchased any equipment, yet, and hope to gather whatever wisdom I can from those with more experience. I've got a good bit of research under my belt, but don't want to muddy this thread with all that. Hopefully, someone can point me at the right forum to ask such basic questions. Thank you all in advance!

In the Zip files for each of the fonts there is a file with "Gimp" added on the end of the file name for the font. I've found that those are recognized by Studio. It allows the skipping of the Inkscape step and the color steps above.

It works Kev, well done!

Good to see you here Pete! If you build in 1/32, are you a member here It’s a great forum with very friendly helpful members, and administered expertly by Kev, see above. Max