Silhouette Portrait cutter

[RichardL]

Silhoette now has a lower-priced ($160) cutter named "Silhouette Portrait". I recently bought one to make custom masks

Ooh, thanks for the tips. This could be the ideal way for me to cut custom masks for the Saab Viggen splinter camouflage. I'm currently cutting those masks from Tamiya masking sheets manually by hand, so this tool would save a lot of time.

[Janissary]

Thread hopelessly hijacked ,but how much mileage does one expect from the subject?

Alternative viewpoints will be offered. As unpalatable as that may be, one cannot expect full support for every tool, model or service offered up in a thread of this type.

After reading the entire thread and your posts, I still cannot figure out what your issue is with the original post or the topic. Someone has identified a tool that is cheap, useful, and - most importantly - suitable for the tasks he identified in his post. He then shares that info with the community. While your first post is relevant to this community, the only point I get out of it is that you are inviting readers to consider the alternative industrial-sized machines, probably as a way to inform us that we could contact you for further information (I am still not sure if this is your key message). Other than that, I see pictures of your great work, which speaks volumes of your skill set. I would strongly encourage you to start a new topic on its own because you have some fantastic stuff.

I don't understand why you are dismissing the Silhouette cutter as a toy. It might be a toy from your point of view or for the tasks you are most interested in, but it sure is not for the tasks that have been clearly identified prior to your first post. If your issue is that you think people will jump on these cheap cutters without knowing what kind of expertise or skill sets are required to use these tools, again those issues have been healthily discussed throughout the thread.

I personally found all the info prior to your post extremely valuable and have been contemplating purchasing it just because it fits my needs, and I have the skill set to make it work. Personally, your posts have not addressed any of my immediate technical interest, needs, or curiosity, but I recognize others may find it useful.

[Pep]

Too bad you are unable to allow anything on your precious thread that is above your limited experience/production experience. The Silhoutte is a toy , not much else.

So are Little scale airplanes and motorcycles... but maybe that's just me =)

[JackMan]

I don't want to take sides because I greatly appreciate the imparting of knowledge that both sides are kind enough to share.

However, I must cosign with Janissary on the points below..

Someone has identified a tool that is cheap, useful, and - most importantly - suitable for the tasks he identified in his post. He then shares that info with the community.

Kursad has always been willing to share knowledge about his trade & techniques (unfortunately some may or may not have taken advantage of that ..eg, a certain manufacturer of Chengdu F-7 decals). But the rest of us really appreciate his willingness to share tips & techniques.

I see pictures of your great work, which speaks volumes of your skill set. I would strongly encourage you to start a new topic on its own because you have some fantastic stuff.

Cosign too.

I don't understand why you are dismissing the Silhouette cutter as a toy. It might be a toy from your point of view or for the tasks you are most interested in, but it sure is not for the tasks that have been clearly identified prior to your first post.

The Mattel vac-u-form machine also started out as a toy in the 60s(?). It is now highly sought out by modelers so that they can vac-u-form their own canopies & other parts. I've seen some of them fetch quite a high price on E-Bay...despite it being a toy. "Future" was intended to be a floor wax but used by modelers for gloss coating & who'd thought a woman's nail polish remover could be used for putty sealing of seams without the trouble of having to sand the putty? And then there's the 'hairspray technique' for weathering. Some folks use old credit cards & shampoo bottle plastic in place of Evergreen stock. Medical syringe needles for pitot tubes. Red & Green wingtip lights made from polished toothbrush plastic. The list goes on.

Just something to think about.

So, toy or not, it if meets a modeler's purpose, then why not?

[RiderFan]

@Jackman...

Something else that just occurred to me about your painting mask experiment. This might be mildly off topic, but it's related to using masks soooo...

If you're concerned about paint bleed under a mask, apply the mask then give the area a shot of clear coat. After that's dried, paint your normal colour. Any bleeding under the mask will have been sealed up by the clear coat, and when you pull the mask off you wont see the bleeding because it's, well, clear.

Anyway, just another $0.05 (we don't have pennies anymore) worth.

[krow113]

I agree the Vac-u form is a toy until you install the kit from this company:

http://www.gaugepods.com/vacuform/

Then it becomes a tool.

I deal with people all the time who buy cheap tools and regret the purchase. By all means get one of these , but be prepared to toss it in the garbage when it wears out. These are cheap and todays mindset believes cheaper is better.Sure it may not wear out in a modellers lifetime , I just dont think that way.

Remember skills and confidence grow as experience occurs , one may likely grow out of this little machine and feel the need for a larger work area , or find it useless when computer skills are not up to producing the files properly.There is more to it than a simple "Hey buy this tool and start making masks."

The clear trick is an old and valuable one, burnishing the edge of the mask , will help to seal the mask. Expedite the paint work as well , leaving things for later invites trouble. I will supply a written instruction/procedure for applying mask sets and suggest a google search of 'vinyl graphic application' as well.

My intention was to add to the discussion , if that is not clear to some then there is not much I can do about that.

The author here went straight to "I'm offended" rather than accept an alternative viewpoint , again not much I can do about that. Unfortunately on model forums any input other than back slapping and endless "well done's" results in people taking issue at the slightest perceived offense.

Thanks for the comps on my work , I do produce custom mask sets for individual projects , if some one already makes it ,I wont. There is little profit in this work , I like the thought of helping others to do the subjects they cant get from mainstream masking/marking company's.

Mask set for Trumps 1/24 D-9 markings:

[Rodney]

Ok, finally got a morning to play with the Silhouette SD Cutter, which is 2 models ago. Also, my wife just bought a 27" Mac. I'm a PC person but may be a believer now...

So, far the experiment has not gone well. I downloaded USAF Amarillo font and tried some cuts at 1/4", 1/2", and 3/4" tall letters. I've tried various combinations of blades and cut speeds. The setting seem to affect the quality of the cut and I got to where it cut fairly straight lines and decent corners. However, it would appear that the blade does not lift but rotates at line intersections or corners. This causes the edges to lift and centers of letters/numbers to come out. For example, when cutting an "A", the center comes off. If the blade would lift before rotating, then I think the results would be significantly better.

Do the newer Silhouettes operate this way as well?

Thanks,

Rodney

[RiderFan]

What software are you using for the artwork?

My Robo Cutter does cuts far smaller than that without the issue you describe. How much have you slowed down the speed? Is it a new blade? What material are you cutting?

Edited May 4, 2013 by RiderFan

[Rodney]

The software that came with the Silhouette. My wife has Illustrator but I didn't think the drawing package would affect how the machine interprets the file and does the cut.

Thanks,

Rodney

[RiderFan]

Actually the drawing package does play a role. The software that comes with the Silhouette is really not very good. You can actually assign different cutting properties based on stroke style. So if you want to slow down on corners, make the corners of the cut a different line colour, then assign that colour a different speed. I use inkscape for this purpose and I know illustrator could do that as well. The software that came in the package is exceedingly basic.

That said, I'd take a look at the material. The Tamiya sheet that I use has enough adhesive on it to hold inside cuts in place. Some of the other masking sheet I've used has very little gum on it and pulls up really easily.

[Pep]

Sorry to start up an old thread,

Amazon currently has this on sale for $125

Does anyone have any recommendation on what masking vinyl to use?

[Lancer512]

Does anyone have any recommendation on what masking vinyl to use?

For painting masks, am using Oracal 631, a low tack removable foil with a thickness of 0.003" (0.08mm).

[happy1]

I have mentioned the Silhouette Cameo cutter a while ago. Silhoette now has a lower-priced ($160) cutter named "Silhouette Portrait". I recently bought one to make custom masks; and I am really enjoying it so far. I highly recommend it to anyone who would like to design and make his own custom vinyl masks for painting markings, masking canopies, etc.

This is a tool that is primarily aimed at the scrapbooking hobbyists. There have been similar cutters before (like Cricut), but they were strictly limited to what shapes you could cut: the companies sold expensive cartridges with designs, and you could not cut your own designs. Silhouette Portrait essentially works like a printer and you can cut pretty much any shape you can draw. The software that comes with the cutter is pretty powerful; but you can import and cut DXF files which means you can use any vector-based drawing program you want to design, export to DXF and cut the design using the Portrait.

Here are some photos of the Portrait in operation (sorry for the pink vinyl my wife chose to make signs for the house). I cut a simple "USAF" mask within seconds and placed it on a scrap Airfix Hawk lying around. I also cut much, much more intricate designs successfully with great results. At this price, this could be a great tool for modeling. It has optical registration capabilities for precision cutting, which means you can use it to precisely cut shapes from a custom inkjet decal sheet, etc. I intend to use mine for personal projects as well as prototyping of vinyl masks to be included in future products from my decal line.

I just got the Silhouette portrait, what type of vinyl do you use, I just got a roll of Oracal 810 vinyl, just curious as to what others are using.

Paul

[Lancer512]

Disregard. Just noticed I already posted the answer two posts above.

Edited June 26, 2014 by Lancer512

[dnl42]

Do I need anything beyond the Silhouette Portrait Cutter, vinyl for masks (e.g., Oracal 631), and appropriate software (i.e., inkscape in my case) to make masks?

My wife doesn't know this yet, but she'll need a complete list of things to buy :)

[happy1]

Dave, I have a question I just cut my first sample using card stock and I had to print registration marks on the card stock question do I have to print those on vinyl???

Paul

[happy1]

Never mind I found the answer today when I cut my first set of masks came out pretty good if I do say so myself and I do say so. :-).

Paul

[happy1]

KursadA or Lance I'm using Silhouette Design Studio 3.0.531 ssde Windows 7 Home Premium I've loaded some True type fonts into windows fonts directory but I'm unable to bring them up in studio designer. I was wondering if either one of you were using this software, if so are you having the same trouble as I am.

Paul

[Winnie]

You have to save the file as a .PNG after the text has been written, the Silhouette program does not register any others, unless you have the updated studio.

(Studio designer?)

But if you do write the text you can use the ruler tools to insure that your scale is correct, and if you have separate bits of text at separate scales you can scale individual drawings.

Cheers

H.

[happy1]

Winnie I can load and use some ttf fonts but not all of them I do have the upgraded designer studio version, I didn't know that you could save a font as a png file. thanks.

Paul

[Winnie]

You have to use a drawing program to save the files as .png I believe, but I am no graphics designer and have no real clue, but that is what I did, and then ask the thing to trace your outlines only and voila.

As was mentioned above the better programs you use to draw, the higher your resolution will be on the finished article.

I find the Vinyl that you get from Silhouette ok, but for complex surfaces use Tamiya tape or others for better stickyness, as the vinyl did not conform well to curves.

Cheers

Harald

[happy1]

Vinnie Thanks: what program do you use? I'm using Oracal 810 masking vinyl it costs a little more but it's made especially for paint masking uneven surfaces, I'm going to try Tamiya tape you can get it at Tamiya America IIRC 5X7 sheets 4 in a pack.

Paul

[Winnie]

I believe you can get 8 1/2 x 11 sheets too of similar tape to Tamiya.

I just use paint, I have not gotten into the software thing yet. May have to get a good vector program so I can do some better stuff.

Cheers

H.

[happy1]

I believe you can get 8 1/2 x 11 sheets too of similar tape to Tamiya.

I just use paint, I have not gotten into the software thing yet. May have to get a good vector program so I can do some better stuff.

Cheers

H.

First where to get the 8 1/2X11 sheets, Have you tried Inkscape is a good vector program you can find it at CNET.com it's free, I'm also using paint right now too.

Thanks

PAUL

Edited August 2, 2014 by happy1