**** DONE: GB-36 1/48 FW190A-5 - Axis Manufactured Aircraft of WWII

Hmm, maybe the seal isn't perfect on your plastic tubs or they are slightly porous to gas and the solvent is slowly evaporating and paint polymerising. I do the same as Wayne and recycle Tamiya and Gunze bottles but also bought some of these Tamiya mini bottles for keeping smaller batches I use for specific projects.

Good work Andy, and I agree, the colour overall should subdue once fully dry and settled, and after the clear coats.

COMMENTS :- I like it.
SUGGESTION :- Have a beer !

Kirby, I like your suggestion.

Terry, I like your's better!

Tamiya jars do the job for me, I mix plenty depending on the subject and it seems to last quite a while for acrylics....

Doin' good there Andy.

Thanks guys. Tampered with the mask maker yesterday. I found templates for the German insignia on the net as .svg files which can be uploaded to the machines software directly.



The files here are "flat" and need to be manipulated to allow the cutter to recognize the individual lines that make up the colour boundaries that the cutter will follow. The upper wing Balkenkreuz was opened in Adobe Illustrator and the required definition was added. The new file was then imported into the Cricut design space, duplicated since I need two masks, and scaled down to the exact size, in this case 20mm wide.



At this point, the mask is ready to cut. The scale on the design space above corresponds exactly to the dimensions on the cutting mat so now what we need to do is stick the masking material to the cutting mat and load the machine.

I'll continue with that process a little later.

Nice.

Great stuff. twenty plus years ago, I knew how to do all this sort of stuff with film separations, but I wouldn't know where to start with computer software and plotters !

Looking forward to this...

Thanks guys. The experimentation continues and because of the number of pics involved, I'll need to span this update over two posts.

This is the cutting mat that comes with the machine. There is a clear acetate film which needs to be peeled away and this protects a sticky surface which adheres to the work material so that it doesn't slip during the cutting process. The mat can be used many times, provided that the protective film is reapplied after use and you don't drop the mat on the carpet like I did.....



This is the material I would like to use for the masks. It's transparent and a test of the tackiness on the paint surface reveals that it won't peel off the paint.



A piece of the mask paper is stuck to the mat and the mat is inserted into the cutter. The markings on the mat correspond to the ones in the software so checking the location of the mask is easy. There are two heads on the cutter. The one on the left, which is empty, holds a pen if you want to print patterns onto paper (like greeting cards) and the one on the right holds the cutter head.




The machine has a dial that adjusts the depth of cut for different stock. An earlier test confirmed that the paper setting cuts through the clear part of the mask leaving the backing paper intact - or so I thought (see below). I may need to look into programming in a custom depth.




With everything set, the "Go" button is pressed and the machine starts cutting the pattern. The cutting head moves side to side and the mat moves in and out during the cutting process.



Hard to see but here's the finished mask. The cuts for two upper wing crosses can just be seen.



I mentioned earlier about the depth of cut setting. Evidently, the cutter went right through the backing paper in spots and when I peeled the mask away from the mat, some of the backing paper stayed behind.

Now for the tricky part - transferring the mask to the model and making sure that everything is correctly aligned and centered. To start, I made some very small pencil marks on the wings where I want the mask to go.



And here's where things went south. Before I peeled off the backing paper, I stuck on another sheet of clear mask over the top so that the individual pieces would stay together and not stay on the backing paper. This affected the overall transparency of the mask and there was no way I could see my locating mark. In addition, once the mask was down, some of the pieces stuck to the upper mask when I peeled it away and there was no way I could get them off.




The outer section was peeled away revealing the cuts for demonstration purposes only. The fact that some of the pieces stuck to the upper sheet made this attempt a failure. Note also that there is a tiny dot cut at the center of the mask and this could be a possible result of the creating of the vector file for the cross. It gives me an idea though in that I could perhaps get the cutter to cut a fine cross hair at the center as well as slots in the film so that I can see locating lines that I would pencil on the model. Filed for future.

This picture also reveals that the actual mask patterns are not perfect. Some edges have become rounded and there seems to be some shrinkage of some of the pieces. Maybe this isn't the ideal material after all.




Having learned a lot with that first try, I decided to give some vinyl a shot. Maybe this stuff would be tougher and easier to work with. Now, the vinyl roll that my wife got me along with the machine is actually white, not transparent so I wouldn't use this for my projects but I thought that I'd try it anyway. The process of cutting was repeated as previously described.




This time, I placed the mask on the inner wing surface of my unfinished Anson, having separated the cross components from the surrounding material. This time I will try painting using the mask and there are two ways to go about it - 1) paint all the black and add back all the mask pieces except those representing the white and 2) start with the white bits, then mask over the white paint with the appropriate pieces and shoot the black.




For this trial, I went with method 1. First, black was sprayed into the full area shown on the left in the above pic. Then I added back in all the masks, starting with the outer L shapes that would cover the outer black edges. I then temporarily added the thicker L pieces that would represent the white sections. Finally the largest mask piece was added - the center cross. Once everything was properly aligned, I removed the thicker L's to reveal the area to be painted white (below).




The white was then sprayed.....



...and the masks removed to reveal an okay cross. A close look reveals some imperfections and the image is nowhere near as sharp as a good decal. Also, some of the white managed to find a thin hole and creep into the outer edges. Maybe method 2 would be better.

It's possible that I may not get an acceptable result in 1/48 scale as these crosses are fairly complex to manipulate. However, I'm not giving up yet as a) I think the other material still has potential and will be superior to vinyl, b) the application techniques can be refined, and c) I think there are some tweaks I can make in the vector file that could help the cutting, as I'm convinced that several of the cuts are being made twice because of the way the file was layered (I made one file with two layers so that I could delete the black bits if I want to make the low-visibility type crosses).




I'll be off to Nanton tomorrow as we're gluing some outer skin on our Mossie so I won't have an update until Wednesday earliest.

I hope the above was of some interest and I'll keep trying to see if these crosses can be made acceptable for my model. Otherwise, it will be back to decals!

Great explanation and demonstration Andy. Once you've perfected the system and materials, there'll be no stopping you !

Nice work on the 190, Andy! I alays find the stage after painting and before markings to be an awkward looking adolescence. The black and white crosses will do a lot to settle down the camo.

I'm surprised at the inexactness of the Cricut cuts... you could almost do better cutting by knife/straightedge no?

Looks great so far Andy!

Fascinating...

Interesting Andy....

Thanks everyone.

JKim said:

I'm surprised at the inexactness of the Cricut cuts... you could almost do better cutting by knife/straightedge no?

Click to expand...

No way John. The 1/48 Balkenkreuz is 20mm square and the outer black Ls just .75mm thick.

Yesterday, my wife played with the vector file and simplified it. Will give it another go soon.

I'm sure she told you what you're doing wrong...

Nah, despite being of Dutch ancestry she doesn't do that

In fact, I can tell here that she didn't close the shapes as the cutter is leaving gaps in the corners. Problem is, she has AI file on her laptop which she takes to work.