Kevin Futter

Having just shelled out several hundred dollars in annual costs to keep Scale Model Paint Masks running, I've come to realise that it's not financially tenable for me to continue to do so. Without sponsorship or benefaction, I'm humbly going to have to ask for your collective assistance in defraying the running costs of the site. To that end, I've set up a new PayPal Donate button (below), with which you can donate any amount of your choosing, from a single dollar upwards. Any amount will help! If the button doesn't work for you, try the link below: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=4F8UANDQKKFR4 I thank in advance those of you who are able to donate, and hope to find a better solution to covering our operating costs as we move forward. Kev

Welcome aboard, Mark! Lovely work on that An-2. Whose kit is it? Kev

Just ran another software update for the forums, and testing that posting is working normally. Kev

The Silhouette format is perfectly OK, as it represents what the majority of us use anyway, but a more universal format is always preferable by definition. So, upload away! Kev

I bought my Oramask in a large roll, and it definitely needs to be cut up for the Portrait 2 that I have. I'm not familiar enough with the Cameo to answer your question definitively, however, but I suspect the roll I have would be too large for that, too. Kev

I just use plain old Tamiya tape, but I've only needed to use it a couple of times. Kev

That's interesting. It's been a long time since I've had to deal with Windows fonts. Can you tell us what fonts they are? The entire name plus format if you know it. Kev

That's a tricky one, and not something I've had a lot of experience with in Silhouette Studio so far. I'm a Mac user, so probably can't offer a lot of useful advice about Windows fonts anyway. Hopefully one of our other members with a similar set up to yours can assist. Kev

Welcome aboard! Honestly, I haven't upgraded so far, but I'm also far from a heavy user. My advice would be to stick with the basic version, which has plenty of functionality, and then as you step up in experience and ambition, consider the upgrade then. Kev

Came out great, Max! But to be honest, I would have done it that way too, just to ensure no white fringing. Mostly though, I try to paint the insignia before the camouflage, for the same reason.

Thanks, fellas! I've done the touch-ups now, and given the area another gloss coat for protection. I couldn't resist posing the prop in place for effect: Kev

Those of you who are LSP members, or follow me on Facebook, may already be aware of this build, so my apologies for the double-up. I've now got it to the stage where I'm painting on some of the markings, and of course, cutting the required masks on the Silhouette Portrait! But first, a quick recap of the build to this point. The kit was given to me by a friend a couple of years ago, and I decided to mate it up with a parts kit that another friend had sent me a few years prior to that. This latter box contained most of an entire Hasegawa Mustang kit, along with an assortment of aftermarket items and some scratch-built modifications. I decided to treat both kits as one, and use whatever aftermarket I could find in the parts box, and use it in a build of the first kit. Hopefully that makes sense! But in spirit, I wanted this to be an out-of-box build - so no rescribing! So, I started with the Grand Phoenix resin cockpit set and instrument panel: I modified the tail wheel and fuselage mount to allow me to fit it at the end of the build: I used Moskit exhausts in place of the kit ones, and modified the engine so I could mount it onto a length of aluminium tubing, to assist with installing it into the fuselage: The tubing also now forms the prop shaft. Assembly from there was pretty straightforward: I removed the excessive bulges from the True Details tyres: The scheme I've chosen is "Butch Baby", which is one of the schemes Hasegawa provides in the newer of the two releases I have. This has red-and-yellow stripes on the spinner, and similarly-coloured chequers on the nose. I had a lot of trouble masking up the spinner, and I'll spare you the gory details, but I got there in the end: This brings us up to today's update: masking the nose chequers. In preparation for this step, I scanned the kit decals, prepped them in Photoshop, traced them in Silhouette Studio, and then cut them on the Silhouette Portrait: Note that I'll be using commercial masks for the national markings, and the kit decals for the aircraft name and any relevant stencils. If anybody wants a copy of the cut file, I can upload it here, but it's a bit wobbly in places, and probably needs to be re-drawn from scratch. I cut two copies so that I could test them on a mule, before I commit them to the final model. I forged on ahead with the chequers, however: SMS Red next: And unmasked: Not bad! But certainly not perfect. Oddly, the vinyl mask managed to lift off a divot of the yellow paint in one area, which I definitely was not expecting: What I was expecting, however, was that the vinyl masks wouldn't conform all that well around the chin intake area, and I was right about that: I'll re-mask this area with Tamiya tape and go over it, but since the red seems a little fragile, I'll be laying down a couple of gloss coats before I do. Overall, it's a little untidy, but definitely in the ball park. Hopefully for the next update I'll have it all tidy and masked up ready for the main paint job. Kev

Welcome aboard, sir! Kev

Welcome aboard, Franz! Kev

Thanks, Max. I get it now! Kev

Thanks, Max. In the first photo, the first mask appears to have some sort of thin border around it. I can't quite work out what I'm seeing. Kev

Just another test... Kev

I'll see if I can find an English manual for you. Bed time for me right now, but I'll have a look around in the morning for you. Kev

Welcome aboard, Jeepee! Kev

Welcome aboard, Jim! We're glad you found this site, too. Kev

I'm both. Kev

Of the two, I'd go for the Portrait. As I understand it, the main advantage of the Cameo for our purposes is that it can handle larger media, but I can't imagine ever needing anything bigger for scale modelling than what the Portrait can manage. The Cameo is overkill in my opinion, unless you can get it for a bargain. Max has one, however, and is therefore better qualified to make a knowledgeable assessment than I am. Over to you, Max! Kev

Welcome aboard, Gassman! These are common enough questions, but sadly I can't count myself as an expert, so any advice I give will have to be considered in that light! For the hobbyist, there appear to be two main brands of cutting machines: Silhouette and Cricut. Of the two, I'm really only familiar with the former, having purchased a Silhouette Portrait about 3 years ago (I think it may actually be a Portrait 2, but I'm not certain about that). I can certainly recommend that model as a good all-round machine, though I haven't used it extensively. It's main advantages for me were its relatively modest price, and its relatively small footprint. In terms of software, I've found that the free edition of Silhouette Studio that comes bundled with the devices has covered everything I've needed to do so far. There are paid upgrades available for that software that unlock more features, but I haven't needed to take that step so far. It runs on both MacOS and Windows, and is upgraded fairly regularly. I'll leave it to a member who uses a Cricut machine to describe their experiences with it! Kev

And a test reply. Kev

Just a test post to make sure that posting functionality is working as expected. Safe to ignore! Kev