Stencil cutting

[Jerry Carducci]

Has anyone here any experience using stencil cutters? By stencil cutter I don't mean an Xacto knife or hot knife and cutting mat. I mean one of the machines like a Brother ScanNCut SDX125E or one of the lower cost laser cutters/engravers on the market.

I find myself in preference of making stencils to allow painting insignias, divisional symbols and the like instead of decals and using an Xacto knife has already grown old and is limiting....and a painted anything almost always appears better (and potentially more durable) than a decal.

Thoughts?

Jerry

[Robert E Morey]

I don't have one but my boss at work has one (Cricket) and friend in CA has one. Both use them to make stencils, Vinyl decals, cut paper greeting cards etc - and they work really well. You need a graphics program (Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw etc) to make the graphic or logo you want to cut. But I think they would be fantastic for stencil and paint mask - esp for 1/6 scale. I've made my own stencil with a laser cutter and frisket paper - that works pretty well too.

I think the cutter blade has a limitation on how small of text it can cut, but other than that it does work.
Bob.

[Tim Page]

Hi Bob, I have a Cricut that ive used to make stencils for myself and for mates.
I used them to do all the markings on the Panzer 3 that i sold last year but Rivet also used stencils that i made for his 222.

Some of the small letters can be fiddly to apply but certainly possible.

I can highly reccomend them.

Cheers
Tim

[Robert E Morey]

Tim what do you use (ie program) to make the graphics?
B

[Tim Page]

Hi Bob, Cricut have their own software that you need to use for the layout and printing.
The designs ive done to date were created/edited in a fairly basic paint tool such as Paint 3d or even Word it its text or numbers.
I have downloaded lots of German fonts into Word which also helps for some of the stencils.

Its not really that hard to do once you have determined the correct size that you need them to be.

Cheers
Tim

[Jerry Carducci]

Tim which model Criicut do you have. I was considering a used
Cricut Explore Air 2 I believe it was.

Jerry

[Tim Page]

Hi Jerry, I have the Explore Air 2.
It really works very well.
Cheers
Tim

[Jerry Carducci]

I was fortunate to get a Cricut Explore Air II nib from an online auction (not ebay) and have already used it to make and use stencils to paint markings
on some non-vehicle items.... worked a treat.

Jerry

[Tim Page]

Told Ya

[Malcolm.Plumb]

I have a Brother ScanNcut CM600 which works beautifully.

With Image editing software it wouldn't be a problem to create your own image or scan and edit an existing one and then have it cut out.

Mine was last used to cut out pre-scanned sheets of kit supplied paint masks for three Tamiya 1/12 scale motorcycles and then have them accurately cut out.

This will cut out 1mm circles without a problem.

In this case the paint mask sheet was scanned off the machine, transferred to a Inkscape Graphics editor program to be cleaned up and then saved to be transferred back to the cutting machine.
A sheet of Tamiya masking sheet was used.
For this purpose it is virtually impossible to accurately cut of the supplied templates by hand so this worked out really well.

Sorry image is not armor related.

[Jerry Carducci]

I have a Brother ScanNcut CM600 which works beautifully.

With Image editing software it wouldn't be a problem to create your own image or scan and edit an existing one and then have it cut out.

Mine was last used to cut out pre-scanned sheets of kit supplied paint masks for three Tamiya 1/12 scale motorcycles and then have them accurately cut out.

This will cut out 1mm circles without a problem.

In this case the paint mask sheet was scanned off the machine, transferred to a Inkscape Graphics editor program to be cleaned up and then saved to be transferred back to the cutting machine.
A sheet of Tamiya masking sheet was used.
For this purpose it is virtually impossible to accurately cut of the supplied templates by hand so this worked out really well.

Sorry image is not armor related.




image.png

The brother machines were the other contender- I'd read reviews of both. I happened to encounter the Cricut at a favorable price
first and local shops have supplies for them...whereas the Brother wasn't as common. I've read rave reviews of both.

My first test wasn't for armor either however it was 1/6 related...

Jerry