kwik

Hello Scalefans! (Dave Platts standard greeting in his videos)

For those who does not frequent rscalebuilder; I have a thread about this over there, and I would
like to spread the good word here as well. Nothing like spreading your own sufferings to others!

If you like to try out new stuff, and fix things on your own;

I have experimented lately on making my own paint-maskings.

First step was to buy this machine here;

From this shop;

http://airbrushes.com/product_info.p...ducts_id=2895& %20osCsid=6eeebe97d77057dca0b00ea9f348d8b0

kwik

And also some vinyl sheets;

Which I got from this place here;

http://www.graphicair.co.uk/products...tra-Mask-%252d -Sheets-A4-%28Pack-of-10%29.html

kwik

First job was paintmasks for RAF roundelles.

In the menu of the program that comes with the machine, you can select your output to either an ordinary printer, or the Craft Robo;

kwik

That means you can print out test-sheets on your ordinary printer first in order to check sizes before output to the Craft Robo cutter.

After several test-printouts of the roundelles , I could finally do a test-cut on a real vinyl sheet.

With the machine comes 3 different knifes. I selected the blue one, which is the shortest, and fed a sheet into the machine and clicked the icon. After some wizard steps, there was only one step left; Cut!

And voila I got a vinyl sheet with a nice roundelle on it.

So I tried to "glue" it on the wing, and do some painting. It is important to use your finger and make sure it is properly pressed down against the wing along the edges.

To avoid any paint bleed. I was nervous about this, since it didnt feel like the glue was too strong;

kwik

There was no paint bleeding under the vinyl. I am very happy with the result.

If you get a damage on your plane, it is nice to be able to repair it, and then repaint markings and camouflage, of course.

I used Jotun interiour house colors for this. You cannot really see any difference to the original paint.

This means my paint doesnt cost much. I like that.

It can import

-WMF
-EMF
-BMP
-RLC
-TIF
-CG4
-PCX
-CIT
-RAS
-JPG

But I havent tried doing a cut from any of these. Cannot imagine how that knife shall decide
what to do, if input is a bmp file. Some day I will test some of it.

Some of the figures I can draw;

kwik

Continued with the rest of repair-painting on my ESM Typhoon;

This finalize repairs after an XPS radio lock-out summer 2009;

kwik

Okay , I will finalize this little tutorial by showing the next experiment I tried out.

I bought a finished Proctor Nieuport 28 which I have tested this summer. It was missing some markings.

It was offered to me for 300 Euros, so I could'nt resist.....

So I figured I could try out the Robo Craft again.

First I found a hat in the ring drawing on the internet, saved it as jpeg, and imported it to the Robo Master Program;

kwik

Next I used the polyline facility and made a drawing on top of the jpeg, and then deleted the jpeg;

Next I separated the areas I needed for different colors;

kwik

Then its the painting;

Masking for White used;

kwik

And red color;

kwik

Aaaand finished;

Now the American Lafayette volounteer has markings on his Nieuport.

Yes, I like this machine!

The results are'nt like for the top notch modellers around...it is more like average modellers result.

But that is not the machine's fault. Thats me.

Revy

My Feedback: (1)

I like that alot...thanks for the info, man! ;-}~

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

That's an awesome technique and you did a fine job!

Avaiojet

Kuik,

Great job! Especially layering the masks for painting. Kudos!

Certainly anything can be cut even without the machine. Obviously you know this.

For years we used, and in some cases still do, use Frisket film.

Here's a link.

http://www.grafixarts.com/product/Frisket_Film

Certainly the machine is great, but the film can be placed over line art and carefully cut with a #11 blade.

Continue the good work!

MetallicaJunkie

looks great

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

I also have a craft robo and have been using it for a fair while now. Just fantastic. and no, you can't do what this machine is capable of by hand.

Where it really starts to shine is using it to make mask'd for spraying all the nomenclature, such as the no step, no push, etc. This small text can either be cut as a vinyl sticker to be applied directly to the model and then cleared or as a spray mask. The level of detail and accuracty that it cuts to is just amazing! not a chance in the world would you be able to cut text as small as this machine is capable of. cutting rondels, crosses etc is really just childs play for this machine!

Thanks

dave

Avaiojet

As a professional graphic designer, I spent "years" cutting, just about everything from Ruby. You would be surprised as to what I can do with my hands.

I'm sure you have the same background.

kwik

We all have our methods. Just wanted to show people one possible way.

And as Ticketec says;

"Where it really starts to shine is using it to make mask'd for spraying all the nomenclature, such as the no step, no push, etc."

That is really true. And you can use the texts again, and again, and again.... Resizing is done in a flash......

A tip from Danny "Septic" ; Military fonts;

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/foru...tary-fonts-19/

Warbird Man

My Feedback: (95)

Is this machine available state side of the pond?

ticketec

My Feedback: (2)

Mate, you are a true artist!!!! some very very nice work there. but as you have stated, as a professional in the industry even you will know that you would not be able to reproduce 15 hand cut " NO STEP" or "NO PUSH" that are only 2mm tall with the accuracy of a machine? and only take a minute or so to do. and then get the size not quite right and have to do it all again at 2.5mm tall

Hey Warbirdman,

They are called the craftrobo silluette in the US and would be available from a whole range of places. Mine was bought from a scrapbooking supplier here in Oz.

http://www.craftrobostore.com/craftrobo.html

For your avarage modeller, These are just fantastic! and allows you to get close to the quality that Avaiojet is capable by hand.

Thanks

Dave

kwik

Agree with Ticketec on that, Charles!!! Very nice work.

Avaiojet

You're being to kind.

The days of cutting by hand to compete with equipment, is long gone. That's why I've been on computors for 20 years, although I still do hand work.

Also, do you really know how tall 2.5 MM is? Please give me the size in inches please? Yes, I know there will be numbers after a decimal. I also know what they are.


My cutter is a $3,000.00, and change, cutter designed specially for producing lettering and graphics. Simply put the cutting blade follows a vectored line. Not new science.

The cutting length is 30" and not 14.8 like the equipment offered for the hobbyiest.

The smallest letter my machine will cut is 3/16 or .1875. Smaller than this and I have difficulty, basically, because of the material and not the machine. I'm also limited by the Font at this size. Old English, forget it!

My software cost over $3,000.00. I can bring in color art, do a scan trace, and have vectored art for each color. In seconds, not minutes.

How can the hand compete with that? Simply put, it cannot.

Whistling Death

I have been cutting my own vinyl graphics with my US Cutter ,Laser Cut 24" for over 3 years. Done some nice work with it for me and all the guys in my local club.
It cost me a little over $300.00 and the software was free. I do most of the graphical work in Inkscape, a free program, first then import into my cutting program.
I don't do this professionally so I didn't need an expensive machine but this cutter has done a great job for me over the years.

Avaiojet

Whistling Death,

Great!

I'm on your side. Did you catch this Thread I started a few years ago. Being a Corsiar guy, I hope you did!

I'm always helping modelers help themselves.


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_84...tm.htm#8462647

Whistling Death

Here is what I did to my H9 Corsair with paint and vinyl graphics.