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I just wanted to drop in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and hope that you are all safe and well. Kev

Phil, just to expand on Max's answer, the Silhouette Studio software that comes with the cutters works perfectly well on a Mac, so you'll have no worries. As Max says, it's also perfectly capable of meeting most of your basic needs, and you may never need to use a different application. Kev

I've been doing the serial numbers for my Lightning this morning so here's the way that I went about it, but firstly a reminder of the main tools: I scanned the decal sheet that came with the kit and put the image into my photographs folder. then dragged the image into the Silhouette drawing area, scaling the image to a convenient size and clicking "send to back" (top tool bar) so that I could draw over it. I'm doing XS901, so I could trace the X and S and the 9. I started with the 9. The centre looked circular to me so I selected the line

Yep! From me to me 😂

If you go to the Silhouette web site, they have a chart that shows the various features included in each version of the software. It is the same software with additional features enabled depending upon which Upgrade you purchase. Silhouette America - Software Features Comparison Chart

Thanks guys, that’s certainly a big tick in the plus column for it. I can’t imagine I’ll ever get to a point that the software would be a limitation.

Hello folks! found this forum after looking at the possibility of making my own masks for painting and I saw a link on LSP. I’ve recently spent ages cutting out some masks by hand for a few models especially canopies and I’ve tried the liquid masks but don’t necessarily like them either. Either way it’s frustrating so I’ve decided to look at the silhouette portrait cutter and wanted to find out more about the whole topic before I commit to buying one given the investment.

Morning Phil. I’m afraid I can’t give you much of a steer on your questions simply because I do all my design work directly with the Silhouette software, I have no experience of importing vector files or similar from external sources. The Silhouette software is perfectly capable of doing everything that you might conceivably need mask-wise though with obvious limitations on minimum sizes. Sorry that I can’t help further. Max

Morning Phil, good to see you here. As you’ll see from many people’s comments here, the Silhouette is a real game-changer when it comes to modelling potential. If you need any further advice please ask away and collectively we’ll do our best to help out. Max

Welcome aboard, Phil! Kev

You're welcome Max. This feature is similar to the point editor in CAD programme Rhino3D, which I'm familiar with. That's why I recognized its usefulness. 🙂 Cheers, Peter

Thanks Peter, I didn’t realise those arms could be used like that, it makes life considerably easier! 👍 Max

That's a great tutorial! Let me add my two cents as well, i hope its OK, otherwise I'll ask Kev to move this post. I received my Silhouette Portrait 3 recently and am learning the software now. With the Basic Edition that comes with the Portrait 3 you can now import pictures and trace them. I'm making masks for the registration letters for a model of a Dutch civil general aviation plane (1/20 Fuji FA-200). On the dutch government website, articles about the prescribed letter font and -distance can be found. These include pictures of very crap

That's a great tutorial, thank you!! Lots of interesting gen in there!

Hi all Just unboxed my Cameo 4 today, managed to get it set up, and imported some files into my library! Step 1 of many...😅 Thanks to everyone who has uploaded files so far, they're going to be a great help. I'll fumble my way along and hopefully get some in there as well one day! Now the learning begins!! Iain

Welcome Iain, always good to see new members. Enjoy your new toy, it will soon become an essential item for you!

I've done the nose of my Lightning this afternoon so recorded the masking sequence that I followed. This isn't the only way of doing it, there are shortcuts when transferring the mask to the transfer piece for instance but this is how I did this particular one today: Firstly I prepared an "empty" mask, a negative one if you like just to get its position right and to spray the background white areas ready for the roundel and the chequerboard: Then I took my transfer piece and placed it over the mask, carefully lifting it from its backing sheet

My recently completed 1/48 Hasegawa Typhone Mk Ib with Montex Masks. Only decal was the pilots kill board. First time using masks successfully. The issue I see for me it transferring and getting the right things to stick. Did a little test before with Stars/Bars and that was entertaining. Maybe I'll just stick to Japanese aircraft! 🤣

You’re very welcome Jerry. I remember the first time I used (commercially produced) masks I found it really difficult to understand the order of doing things and actually made a right hash of it, so if my thread helps you to do it more successfully then my efforts will have been worthwhile! 😃

I have Frisket film, and I have Cricut Transfer tape which is clear... The Frisket film is much tackier than the Cricut Transfer tape. Given a choice, I grab the Cricut.

I originally built this model some time in the early '90s, after just getting back into the hobby from a long layoff. In 2007, I decided to rebuild it rather than toss it out, and can actually present before and after photos! Here it is as originally built and painted, prior to being disassembled for the rebuild (apologies for the crappy photo): And after several months' work, which featured lots of scratchbuilding and a complete rescribe, here's the renovated result: Needless to say, all the markings, save for