I am thinking about buying a Silhouette Portrait 4.9" cutter. So far the thing that is stopping me from making that investment is uncertainty over what material I need to cut masks for insignia and larger markings on aircraft, or perhaps clear parts masking material.
AI told me low-tack stencil vinyl or hobby masking films such as Oramask 810 that are compatible with such cutters. I’m at the point of not knowing what I don’t know. I have not located the 810 product the AI suggested, but did find many products labeled 813 by Oramask - not sure if that is the same product or not.
I’ve seen a few posts on this topic in recent months, so just curious from those of you who have bought one of these cutters, what material are you using?
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A buddy of mine has one. He did an F105 markings with it. It turned out amazing. I can ask him what’s the best material to use and pass that along to you.
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This text is from him, “ Tamiya is best from my perspective. Holds down over curves and doesn’t shrink after application.
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That is what I have for my vinyl cutter. I haven’t had time to use it yet, but I have it. 
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After seeing his results, I wanted one, but haven’t pulled the trigger.
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I bought a Silhouette Portrait cutter several years ago. The device is terrific. I use Oramask 810 vinyl for cutting stencils with no problem. I also cut stencils with Tamiya Tape sheets to good effect. If you need encouragement to buy the cutter, do it. Having/using the cutter will take your model building to the next level.
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These were built by a good friend of mine. His name is Chris Vandegrift. Here’s some results using the cutter.
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Okay, I’m putting a cutter on my wish list.
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Thanks for the responses everyone. I bought the Silhouette tonight.
I am guessing this will take a bit of a learning curve to master, so I won’t expect to produce anything for my current build - although I am going to play with it for the Lancaster.
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Well, Aggieman, it is a pretty short leaning curve. Have fun.
I just bought the cricut, I hope I did the right thing? I truly just couldn’t make up my mind so I pulled the trigger when I saw a good sale on the explorer 4 which is probably more than I need but it was only $200 for a full kit.
I haven’t hooked everything up yet, been working 11 hour days but hopefully soon I’ll get some time.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with yours.
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I’m curious to know if you need a special transfer film with these vinyl masks? I’ve had a heck of a time finding a transfer film that isn’t too sticky, making it difficult to properly adhere the vinyl. I imagine using a low-tack vinyl for masking would make this even worse.
I use a clear frisket film to place the mask. To reduce the tack of the transfer film (frisket) I give it a couple of rubs on the palm of my hand.
I have the machine now, but have yet to do anything with it. Everything I thought I was getting was in the box (new, not refurbished purchase), but there is no user’s manual or anything relating to software. Any suggestions on the software to use for this process? Should I go with Silhouette Studio (free edition might not be sufficient, hard for me to determine)? Or something else?
All I’ve ever used is Silhouette Studio Basic Edition. It can import multiple formats: DXF, PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, and TIF. I usually use DXF since most of my artwork is done in CAD, and is vector based. For bitmap work, I use GIMP, which exports PNG, JPG, GIF and TIF, I think, probably others.
You might consider Inkscape, which is a free design software similar to Adobe Illustrator (so if you have Adobe experience, the learning curve will be shorter), and by reports is more capable than Studio. I don’t have a cutter but have used Inkscape for design work (my FSM avatar, for example) and found it pretty easy to use.
Here’s a discussion I found about how you can use Inkscape to design, and then import into Studio for cutting, or get a plug-in for Inskcape for cutting directly:
https://www.reddit.com/r/silhouettecameo/comments/1ebkhr3/anyone_using_inkscape/
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