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My wife is crafty and does monogramming via embroidery and vinyl. She could make me custom vinyl stickers for my custom Imperial Guard but I was wondering if anyone has tried this vs the standard type transfers.

Even the thinnest vinyl is too thick and will most definitely look like a sticker.

Your best bet is to what I do and use the cutting machine to make stencils to paint with.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Even the thinnest vinyl is too thick and will most definitely look like a sticker.

Your best bet is to what I do and use the cutting machine to make stencils to paint with.

What kind of cutting machine?!?!? I need this in my life!

Don't fight it.
It may not look like a sticker if you put it on before you prime.
Use the thickest 'paper' you can and it'll look like a plaque or as if it's molded into the piece.
Sure you'll have to paint it but that'll be easier than freehand.
Give it a go on some spare bits and see how it goes.

I work at a textile printing company we als have a big Roland plotter printing textile heat transfers and stickers.
I would say it depends on the vinyl sticker material and the prefered look you want really.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
Don't fight it.
It may not look like a sticker if you put it on before you prime.
Use the thickest 'paper' you can and it'll look like a plaque or as if it's molded into the piece.
Sure you'll have to paint it but that'll be easier than freehand.
Give it a go on some spare bits and see how it goes.

Is one good way to utilize plotter cut stickers. Test the sticker material you are gonna use first to see how well it works on the surface. Some sticker foils are quite rigged and will crease in surface details like rivets or if the surface is curved.
I would suggest a stretchy vinyl sticker foil. Also a lot of sticker vinyl can be made softer by gently heating it with a hair dryer. Heat it and gently press it on the surface details and/or stretch it over the curve of the surface. Than see if it sticks good enough to be workable.

 Drummernathan wrote:

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Even the thinnest vinyl is too thick and will most definitely look like a sticker.

Your best bet is to what I do and use the cutting machine to make stencils to paint with.

What kind of cutting machine?!?!? I need this in my life!

Big brand in this market is Roland. (they also make pianos.) Just Google plotter cutter. Bear in mind you are gonna need software to make the cutting lines. At my company we use Adobe illustrator in combination with Roland Versa works.
We also have a smaller Roland plotter cutter just for cutting. For this one we use Illustrator combined with Coral Draw.

 Drummernathan wrote:

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Even the thinnest vinyl is too thick and will most definitely look like a sticker.

Your best bet is to what I do and use the cutting machine to make stencils to paint with.

What kind of cutting machine?!?!? I need this in my life!

I use a silhouette cameo, and it works wonderfully. It takes a little bit of time to learn the software, but it is really great for what we need in this hobby. Cricket is the competing brand, though I have no personal experience with them. You can find a few example photos in my gallery, although I think that I have dialed it in a little bit better since then (when I first started tinkering with it).

Suks wrote:

 Drummernathan wrote:
What kind of cutting machine?!?!? I need this in my life!

I use a silhouette cameo

That is also what I use.

I used it to make the logo on this base:


I also used it to make the stencils for this custom base for a Super Star Destroyer for Star Wars Armada I did for a friend of mine:


I made the Resistance logo on the base for this 1/72 scale T-70 X-wing with it as well:

Yeah I have a Silhouette Portrait. I find its fine detail cutting to be a bit lacking though. There's a lot of things I'd LIKE to cut but struggle because it doesn't seem to be accurate enough.

If you use the vinyl like stickers on a painted model.... they'll still look like stickers.

But as mentioned you could either use the vinyl to make a stencil or stick the vinyl in place BEFORE painting to create embossed detail.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I find its fine detail cutting to be a bit lacking though.

Maybe you already do this, but I recently started turning on the overcut (can't remember the specific name) option by .1 mm or .01 mm (whatever the lowest increment was), and it makes a world of difference. I was always worried the overcut would be noticeable, but that is definitely not the case. If you're not doing that, give it a shot.

Yep, already use overcut. The problem is I think the silhouette is only accurate within maybe 0.1 to 0.15mm, which might sound quite accurate but if you're cutting a strip 1mm wide, the thickness of the strip could be up to 20 to 30% off, which is quite noticeable when doing fine details like a shoulder pad design.