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Hello all, I'm looking to make my first run at die cutting (with a silhouette cameo) my first airbrush stencils this weekend. I'm looking to do mostly patterns, like hex grid, scales, etc.

1. Do you have any good tips for me to keep in mind?
2. Do you have any good source images that you would like to share?

I have a roll of frisket along with stencil material. I think both should work fine, I assume the actual stencil plastic will be more durable, and the frisket would be more of a one time use thing.

What kind of models are you aiming to paint? Large tanks or infantry?

I use tamiya masking tape for this, it is pretty easy as long as you have a good color combination. I put the tape on my cutting map and then cut out randomly shaped and sized pentagons. Check the riptide feet in my gallery for an example.

1. Cover the model with the darkest color. Let the color dry for a day.
2. Apply first layer of masks. Cover model with the mid tone. Let the color dry for a day.
3. Apply second layer of masks, I found it looks best if these partly overlap with the first batch of masks. Cover model with the brightest tone. Let the color dry for a day or more.
4. Carefully remove tape.

It is super important to let each layer dry, otherwise the paint sticks to the tape and comes off with it.

I think Suks is talking about actually cutting his own stencils. Which is awesome, would love to see how that goes!

Could you describe how you are doing this - "die cutting" would have implied to me that you have a die made of the design already, but I would have thought stencils would be cut on a routing machine (or even a laser cutter). So would love to hear how you're doing this, or even better see a few pics

Klaus - those Riptide legs look pretty good! Thanks for your tips!

Ritides - Yes I am planning on cutting out my own stencils. Maybe I'm using the wrong terminology and being unnecessarily confusing in this thread. I am using a machine that automatically cuts out the pattern for me based on the image and outline that I design in the software.

I can import images to it, but not all images are created equally, so I was just wondering if someone else had tread this road before and I could benefit from their work.

I had not thought to do it, but I will definitely document this process. Hopefully we get some good results.

 RiTides wrote:
I think Suks is talking about actually cutting his own stencils. Which is awesome, would love to see how that goes!

Could you describe how you are doing this - "die cutting" would have implied to me that you have a die made of the design already, but I would have thought stencils would be cut on a routing machine (or even a laser cutter). So would love to hear how you're doing this, or even better see a few pics

Mentioned already - the Silhouette Cameo is one of a range of personal/home die cutters. I read about them recently when I looked up the subject of paper minis, but don't know too much about them myself. I'm looking forward to see the results too!

http://www.silhouetteamerica.com
http://www.silhouettecameo.co.uk

I have a Silhouette Portrait I've used it for cutting plasticard rather than templates for masking, though I do have some of the tamiya masking sheets to try.

I have found a few issues so far: it's hard to get technical details on cutter resolution, it also sounds loud and "musical" as it cuts and i've not found a way to quieten it yet.
With the software mostly that it is very un-technical and feels ... simple bit like MSpaint (software is the same for both cameo and portrait), so if you want to draw something with precision you can import a few file types from other software, that said.

When plotting an imported .dxf (CAD file type) file, the cut shifts things to the right by 1 inch for some reason (this is not a calibration issue), you can get around it but generally you end up wasting materials.

A big thing is to watch your blade settings too high for your material and you'll cut through the mat which are not cheap for a replacement, so try and be careful, one side of the matt is self adhesive so as to hold whatever material is being cut.

The replacement blades are also over-priced so watch you don't be too aggressive with them. For cutting masking paper you should be OK with setting 1.

I suspect I'm doing a bit wrong with it, but so far I haven't found any of the video tutorials useful.

just my 2 cents

I own am older Silhouette Portrait. It is awesome. You can just cut masking tape

The device is a knife mounted on a head that moves horizontally, with a sheet guide that moves your target bidirectionally.

You need to be familiar with a 2D vector illustration program, like AutoCAD, Illustrator, or CorelDraw for it to be helpful.

Be aware that even though it can cut quite finely, most of the material you'll use for a mask isn't really useful at the 28mm infantry level. It's much more useful at the size of tanks and terrain.

Just a quick pic, I'll get more detailed process shots and actual results shots later but these aquilas turned out very well! Also had good luck with hex grids.

Very nice. What are using to cut them?

That looks great. judging by the envelope in the back ground the smaller of the eagles must be a 2 to 3 inches large?

I've been considering getting a silhouette portrait (or whatever the cheapest one is!) for the purpose of cutting stencils as a replacement for decals, so I'd love to see how small you can make details and still have them work out.

I really hate decals so I'm trying to get rid of them everywhere it's not absolutely necessary

The one on the ruins is the largest one which is probably just over 3 inches. The smallest one is probably just under 2. I've never used stencils before but pretty happy with results.

Example

And here is an example of the hex grid. This is my first time using stencils at all, so I'm very happy with how everything came out. Definitely going to be doing more with this in the future.