Vinyl - Cutting, Decals and Paint Masks

[JatoTheRipper]

I recently bought a Silhouette Cameo 4 bundle on sale. I can't find any cool or interesting decals for my Vanquish VS4-10 body and I've always wanted to make my own paint masks so I bought this vinyl cutter.

Now my question is, which vinyl do you guys use for RC decals and paint masks?

[Tossedman]

I've used Mactac 8300 Series vinyl and have seen but not tried the Mactac Vinyl Paint Mask. It's excellent stuff. We get it at work in 24" X 54 yard rolls which the print supply company cuts down into two 12" rolls. Works great. You'll need to get some transfer tape as well. They're about 100 bucks a 24" roll up here in Canada and will last you for years.

I've also used the Silhouette Vinyl which is about 12 bucks for 12" X 6'. It's a good place to start, easy to find and no big money commitment. You can also get 12" X 12" sample packs of various brands. Heaps of the stuff on Amazon. I'd just get some and start cutting.

The two stickers on this TX4 were both made with the Silhouette vinyl. The black Land Rover sticker on the hood and the white sticker on the roof rack. They've held up well over the years. The stort klistermærke says "Big Sticker" in Danish. My son said he wanted a big sticker for his roof rack and so that's what he got. Didn't want to advertise for some real company. My Danish brother in law got a good chuckle from it.

[Brake Weight]

Oracle 651 for the vinyl. Mainly for the consistency of the vinyl. Vendor “precision62“ on fleaBay has been my go to and they’re usually spot on with shipping. Once you figure out how to copy stuff it gets interesting then.

I did the paint masks for my old Bomber with our Silhouette.



Here’s the backing I’ve used for over a year. Love it compared to the other stuff I’ve had. Actually thrown away a roll of something else once I got this. Appears to be unavailable right now.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Tossedman

I've used Mactac 8300 Series vinyl and have seen but not tried the Mactac Vinyl Paint Mask. It's excellent stuff. We get it at work in 24" X 54 yard rolls which the print supply company cuts down into two 12" rolls. Works great. You'll need to get some transfer tape as well. They're about 100 bucks a 24" roll up here in Canada and will last you for years.

I've also used the Silhouette Vinyl which is about 12 bucks for 12" X 6'. It's a good place to start, easy to find and no big money commitment. You can also get 12" X 12" sample packs of various brands. Heaps of the stuff on Amazon. I'd just get some and start cutting.

The two stickers on this TX4 were both made with the Silhouette vinyl. The black Land Rover sticker on the hood and the white sticker on the roof rack. They've held up well over the years. The stort klistermærke says "Big Sticker" in Danish. My son said he wanted a big sticker for his roof rack and so that's what he got. Didn't want to advertise for some real company. My Danish brother in law got a good chuckle from it.

Thank you for the info! Is the Mactac any better than the Silhouette vinyl?

Big Sticker made me laugh too. That's clever.

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

Oracle 651 for the vinyl. Mainly for the consistency of the vinyl. Vendor “precision62“ on fleaBay has been my go to and they’re usually spot on with shipping. Once you figure out how to copy stuff it gets interesting then.

I did the paint masks for my old Bomber with our Silhouette.

Here’s the backing I’ve used for over a year. Love it compared to the other stuff I’ve had. Actually thrown away a roll of something else once I got this. Appears to be unavailable right now.

Thank you for the feedback. I've seen a bunch about the Oracle, but I've read mixed reviews and that's based on different part or model numbers of theirs.

I did some research and it looks like that transfer paper can still be found here: https://jewel-hiphop.myshopify.com/c...ransfer-papers

I'm not understanding the difference between clear and blue. What does it matter?

[smog]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I recently bought a Silhouette Cameo 4 bundle on sale. I can't find any cool or interesting decals for my Vanquish VS4-10 body and I've always wanted to make my own paint masks so I bought this vinyl cutter.

Now my question is, which vinyl do you guys use for RC decals and paint masks?

Hey Jato, how difficult is the process of designing and sizing images for cutting with this machine? Are you able to download images and resize them?

Been wanting to get into this for some time, but am clueless about the possibilities.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by smog

Hey Jato, how difficult is the process of designing and sizing images for cutting with this machine? Are you able to download images and resize them?

Been wanting to get into this for some time, but am clueless about the possibilities.

X2

I'm clueless too and need to know more!

[Brake Weight]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Thank you for the feedback. I've seen a bunch about the Oracle, but I've read mixed reviews and that's based on different part or model numbers of theirs.

I did some research and it looks like that transfer paper can still be found here: https://jewel-hiphop.myshopify.com/c...ransfer-papers

I'm not understanding the difference between clear and blue. What does it matter?

Doesn’t really matter to some. What matters the most is how tacky the transfer material is. If it’s too sticky then the smaller detail pieces may not come off easily or at all without needle nosed tweezers.

Buy the set of large tweezers from harbor freight or fleaBay. Invest in a large board to cut on also. I use one I got for RC wrenching. Get one of those slide cutter things. Needs to be at least 12” across, actually 12.5” minimum.

Originally Posted by smog

Hey Jato, how difficult is the process of designing and sizing images for cutting with this machine? Are you able to download images and resize them?

Been wanting to get into this for some time, but am clueless about the possibilities.

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

X2
I'm clueless too and need to know more!

Easy peasy once you learn it. I can just about copy anything. Just as long as it’s a clear straight on pic. You can put several files together. You can take files apart. Ima call them files since after you’ve copied a pic it’s now 1D. Like my Bomber I posted earlier. The A10 nose art I had to break down and then stretch some to look decent. I copied that from a pic I found online.

My AussieLocker decal faded and fell apart. They sold out and you can’t find them anymore. So I made one. The bear is Wojtek. Excellent short war read if you don’t know.



I made these body panels with it also out of thin lexan.



I even made a micro sponson boat once. I got the Predator build plans and copied them from .pdf to fit the tiny sheets of ply at the hobby shop. I used one of the fixed blades and the maximum pressure and lowest speed settings. Made 3 passes and was able to snap most of them off. Some needed a little bit of a hobby knife to free up.



So it’s not just limited to vinyl. Just your imagination. I tried to cut some 1/10 thick lexan but it wouldn’t. It did give me a perfect score line to follow with my hobby knife though. I got into shirts last year. Was making a fair amount of drinking money after the heat press paid for itself. Actually funded my Capra with T shirt money. It’s fun to design and come up with stuff. Especially when it’s original. The biggest PITA is weeding all the vinyl away from the final product. Especially the small detailed ones. This is where a quality vinyl shines over the cheap stuff.

[Brake Weight]

Mine is a Cameo Silhouette 3. I believe the newer versions will allow you to stretch/taper words/files so that they will fit things like cups. Or just stretch the file for aesthetic looks. My program won’t do that.

One of the more complicated shirts I had. I took a lower 48 and added the flag then added the DTOM snake. Any break in lines can be a different color if you have a steady hand to layer them. You only get one chance with vinyl, too. LOL. Unless it’s shirt HTV.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by smog

Hey Jato, how difficult is the process of designing and sizing images for cutting with this machine? Are you able to download images and resize them?

Been wanting to get into this for some time, but am clueless about the possibilities.

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

X2

I'm clueless too and need to know more!

I'm a newbie at this so take what I am saying with a grain of salt.

You design in vectors which are SVG files. It's a very odd way of thinking for me and kind of a foreign way of doing things compared to other design software I've used like SolidWorks, PhotoShop, etc. It's just one of those things where my mind doesn't naturally flow like the process of creating vector images.

For instance, I followed a tutorial online to make a donut. Instead of just drawing a ring, you draw solid circle and then the hole is created by another solid circle. You then use a difference command to "subtract" the small circle from the large circle.

Here's the donut tutorial I followed so you can see what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41_-qsmA7s

The good thing about vectors is that they are infinitely resizable without degrading the quality. And here are tons of free SVG files on the web.

If you want to dabble in vector design, resizing or manipulation, download Inkscape. It's a completely free and open source program and it's quite good. There are tons and tons of tutorials on YouTube.

https://inkscape.org/

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

Doesn’t really matter to some. What matters the most is how tacky the transfer material is. If it’s too sticky then the smaller detail pieces may not come off easily or at all without needle nosed tweezers.

Buy the set of large tweezers from harbor freight or fleaBay. Invest in a large board to cut on also. I use one I got for RC wrenching. Get one of those slide cutter things. Needs to be at least 12” across, actually 12.5” minimum.

Easy peasy once you learn it. I can just about copy anything. Just as long as it’s a clear straight on pic. You can put several files together. You can take files apart. Ima call them files since after you’ve copied a pic it’s now 1D. Like my Bomber I posted earlier. The A10 nose art I had to break down and then stretch some to look decent. I copied that from a pic I found online.

My AussieLocker decal faded and fell apart. They sold out and you can’t find them anymore. So I made one. The bear is Wojtek. Excellent short war read if you don’t know.

I made these body panels with it also out of thin lexan.

I even made a micro sponson boat once. I got the Predator build plans and copied them from .pdf to fit the tiny sheets of ply at the hobby shop. I used one of the fixed blades and the maximum pressure and lowest speed settings. Made 3 passes and was able to snap most of them off. Some needed a little bit of a hobby knife to free up.

So it’s not just limited to vinyl. Just your imagination. I tried to cut some 1/10 thick lexan but it wouldn’t. It did give me a perfect score line to follow with my hobby knife though. I got into shirts last year. Was making a fair amount of drinking money after the heat press paid for itself. Actually funded my Capra with T shirt money. It’s fun to design and come up with stuff. Especially when it’s original. The biggest PITA is weeding all the vinyl away from the final product. Especially the small detailed ones. This is where a quality vinyl shines over the cheap stuff.

I guess I took too long to type because you snuck in as I was responding to smog and B-MOW.

Wow you seem really good at this judging from the photos! It's interesting that you think designing vectors is easy and I think it's foreign! Funny how the human brain works so differently from person to person.

Thanks for the tips! I appreciate it.

How do you determine what is the correct tackiness for your transfer paper?

The adhesive vinly included with my Silhouette bundle is very sticky. Don't they have something like auto vinyl where you can just scrape it on and apply heat? Or is that HTV? When I see that I think it's T-shirt stuff only for some reason.

The Silhouette software business version was included in my Mother's Day package, but I think I prefer Inkscape.

Yours will cut Lexan panels? Do you need any special blades?

[Brake Weight]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I guess I took too long to type because you snuck in as I was responding to smog and B-MOW.

Wow you seem really good at this judging from the photos! It's interesting that you think designing vectors is easy and I think it's foreign! Funny how the human brain works so differently from person to person.

Thanks for the tips! I appreciate it.

How do you determine what is the correct tackiness for your transfer paper?

The adhesive vinly included with my Silhouette bundle is very sticky. Don't they have something like auto vinyl where you can just scrape it on and apply heat? Or is that HTV? When I see that I think it's T-shirt stuff only for some reason.

The Silhouette software business version was included in my Mother's Day package, but I think I prefer Inkscape.

Yours will cut Lexan panels? Do you need any special blades?

The transfer tackiness is a personal preference. The kind you heat up would be for shirts and whatnot. Look for SiserEasyWeed for that. Same fleaBay vendor I listed in the beginning. Working with vectors instead of other files would be like Apples to Androids I guess. Similar end product but a different way to get there.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

The transfer tackiness is a personal preference. The kind you heat up would be for shirts and whatnot. Look for SiserEasyWeed for that. Same fleaBay vendor I listed in the beginning. Working with vectors instead of other files would be like Apples to Androids I guess. Similar end product but a different way to get there.

Thanks.

If you don't work with vectors, which file types do you work with?

[Brake Weight]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Thanks.

If you don't work with vectors, which file types do you work with?

I did some graphic design back in the ‘90s at a T shirt shop. I do not remember what program they used but it was similar. Took a sensor GDesign in JuCo and it was more hand done based. Little was done on computers.

I was playing around on my iPhone a few days ago and the new update lets you stretch pics and do all sorts of new stuff.

But with a clear defined pic you can grayscale it. Play with the color a little bit to bring out what you want. Play with the contrast and brightness to make the lines crisper. Then copy to vector.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

I did some graphic design back in the ‘90s at a T shirt shop. I do not remember what program they used but it was similar. Took a sensor GDesign in JuCo and it was more hand done based. Little was done on computers.

I was playing around on my iPhone a few days ago and the new update lets you stretch pics and do all sorts of new stuff.

But with a clear defined pic you can grayscale it. Play with the color a little bit to bring out what you want. Play with the contrast and brightness to make the lines crisper. Then copy to vector.

Back to the Lexan. Did you cut that on your Cameo?

[smog]

First off, pardon my ignorance and thank you for your insight. I have absolutely no background in graphic design. Just want to be sure this is for me before I drop the dough on one of these. They aren't an inexpensive item up here.

To be clear, all designs need to be created? The included software would not allow me to download a jpg file, for example and then simply shrink it to scale? I would need to completely redraw it in Vectors?

[Brake Weight]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Back to the Lexan. Did you cut that on your Cameo?

Not exactly. I cut the very thin lexan for the Fungi micro crawler. The thicker lexan for a 1/10 was too thick. It made a good etch mark that I was able to cut a few passes with a hobby knife then snap apart.

Originally Posted by smog

First off, pardon my ignorance and thank you for your insight. I have absolutely no background in graphic design. Just want to be sure this is for me before I drop the dough on one of these. They aren't an inexpensive item up here.

To be clear, all designs need to be created? The included software would not allow me to download a jpg file, for example and then simply shrink it to scale? I would need to completely redraw it in Vectors?

Everything has to be in the "Silhouette Studio Document" format. Which consists basically of 1D lines.

[Brake Weight]

Here’s that Wojtek bear I put on my truck. I used the flag the Polish artillery unit had made then converted it. Then found a font online comparable and added the unit number to the shell. Hopes this explains a little bit.

[smog]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

Here’s that Wojtek bear I put on my truck. I used the flag the Polish artillery unit had made then converted it. Then found a font online comparable and added the unit number to the shell. Hopes this explains a little bit.

Yeah, I think so. Thanks for working with me here. I assume the software package is capable of converting files to their format to make them usable? Especially so, considering they have their own.

[Inspector86]

I have thought about a vinyl printer in the past but just never got around to it. This one looks interesting.

[Brake Weight]

Think of it more like a 2 axis CNC machine, for vinyl.

Little example of multiple things. Yoda pic into outline then stole some stock clip arts of seagulls and put them together.