This video is hosted by “weekend Matt”. Top button undone and sleeves rolled up, trying to connect with the audience 😁 Now I’m off to try painting again.
Quick tip when it comes time to apply the vinyl (or the painting mask) to the lexan body, especially on larger designs that are hard to position correctly on the body: Once you have applied masking tape (or transfer tape) and removed the vinyl backing paper, use a piece of parchment paper to cover about 90% of the vinyl design, leaving only a small edge of the vinyl adhesive exposed. The parchment paper will NOT stick to the vinyl adhesive and allow you to freely slide the design into exact position. Once there, use the burnishing tool to adhere the small area of exposed vinyl adhesive, serving as an anchor point. At that point, you can carefully lift up the remaining material, slide the parchment paper out, and then burnish the rest of the decal into final position. This also works great when using multiple colors of vinyl as an exterior decal - the parchment paper lets you align each color layer before adhering to the body. Hope this suggestion helps!
Works perfectly! I’ve done two drag body’s with my own racing team. I drew the files and my LHS owner cuts vinyl $5 a logo for painting masks (two sides) no more liquid mask on the light table. At 68 I’m still painting
We just bought a cricut. Of course my wife wants to make her own things but the main reason we bought it is to make decals and logos for my RC cars. I told her to watch RU-vid videos to learn. This is very helpful for me because I need to learn how to make a logo for my current project. Thanks!
OUTSTANDING video!!! Purchased a Cricut Maker for my wife in 2020. She never used it 😂 and just told me I can have it! Whoo-hoo!! Can’t wait to create some epic paint masks with it. I truly appreciate your video
Just picked a Cricut and been looking for tutorials so perfect timing Matt. This will be a solid video for folks to reference and gain experience in the RC community.. Absolutely a game changer for painting. Cheers mate 👍
I've been on the fence about getting a Cricut. No more. It is now on the "Must Have Soon " list! I would be using it for markings on RC planes. Many thanks fror the Video!
My girlfriend and I just started using her Silhouette vinyl cutter to make decals and masks, and it is Awesome! I can now “print” all the masks that I failed horribly to make using tape or liquid mask b4.
I’ve been using my cameo silhouette for six years now. I originally bought it to cut vinyl transfers for T-shirts as well as window decals, but have since transitioned it to strictly a hobby vinyl cutter. I now use it to make masks for my RC cars, I have also used it used it to make decals for models, slot cars and RC cars, boats or anything that needs A custom cut decal. I use oracle 650 exclusively which is an indoor outdoor permanent vinyl. It’s probably my most used hobby tool.
Hey just wanted to thank you for making this video, it is very helpful information on using a cricut cutter. I’m using mine to make some mask for some drag car bodies.
Love this video!!! I have been using a vinyl plotter to help me paint for at least 20 years now. I don't use a cricut I actually use a bigger (28 inch ) format plotter/ cutter by gcc (You can get a decent sized cutter now for a couple hundred bucks that actually works if you ever plan on making larger decals) and every time I use the cutter for more of the design and do less and less hand cutting. I design all my graphics on illustrator instead of downloading them just because I'm fairly proficient at it, but I was stoked to see you show people how to pull designs off the internet instead of having to create it themselves ( which is why I think most people shy away from this bit of tech). Loved this video, keep up the great content.
Thanks for watching! Yeah, as you know I use Illustrator, but it's not the easiest program to learn right away, so I wanted to be able to give some easy options.
Top tip: when your cutting mat stops getting sticky, clean off the old adhesive with goo gone (not the wrong one Josh was using) and then mask the edges and spray 'batting adhesive' (found at the craft store, it is similar to the 3M adhesive, but similar to the original stickiness of the cutting mat). Also, keep the plastic sheet that came with it on the adhesive in between uses to prevent cat hair from gunking it all up. I use a Brother Scan n Cut which is very similar, but super easy to use vector files or the main selling feature is you can take an existing printed sticker, Scan it, then the software can find the edges and cut it out.
I have a Silhouette Camero 3 vinyl cutter that I only used a few times to make stickers. Never tried to make paint masks with it. I painted a few bodies, but only in 1 or 2 colors, nothing fancy. Guess what I'm gonna (try) do this weekend! Great video, thanks!
You did a better job explaining the software for these machines than some of the other videos I’ve watched. Thanks man. Now I’ll be using my gf’s bday gift for RC stuff lol.
I recently bought a Cricut maker just for this purpose. I’ve been looking for a good video to show me how to make the masks. Excellent video and will share with others that are looking to do this
Excellent how-to vid! I've been wanting to get a vinyl cutter for some time now, but wasn't really sure how hard it would be to make decals and masks. Now after watching I see how easy it really is! Thanks for sharing this and I look forward to seeing more in the future!
Awesome tutorial! I do have a cricuit which I've used for some small details, but it's very complicated. I hope this tutorial helps me improve on my skills.😎👍
Oracal (Orafol) is one of the best sign vinyls on the market. The term "Intermediate" is the quality of the actual vinyl. There are generally 2 types of manufacturing processes, cast and calendered (cast being the higher quality). The vinyl you have (651) is calendered. 651 is pretty much the standard for signs and vehicle decals, etc. For your purposes of masking and decals, 651 is an ideal cost to usage value. Orafol also makes a masking material, but it would be hard to justify the additional cost. There's also a lower tack "removable" vinyl (631) which has a slightly higher price tag. But, if you're not having issues with the 651, then I would just stick with that. I would recommend one thing when it comes to making decals/masks and that would be the usage of application or transfer tape. The adhesive isn't as aggressive as masking tape which helps with the release of the decal. The R-Tape brand is a go to for consistency. They make transparent and semi-opaque versions. One other recommendation is to look in to the Silhouette brand craft cutters. They are distributed by Graphtec which is a manufacturer of commercial plotter/cutters.
I bought a cricut for producing stencils where custom decals wouldn't do the trick. super happy with the results. It can even cut styrene sheeting, so its been a great aid in kitbashing.
All the videos I watched made it look so easy, so I bought one. It's just been sitting. Your video really explained a lot. I'll have to take another stab at it. Thanks!
Loved the video. I have an old school 1st Gen cricut uses the old style cartridges to change fonts 😝 but that being said one thing I use to make paint masks is shelf paper we used to call it Mac tac . It comes in large rolls and since it’s a mask colours don’t matter but white or frosted is easy to find and easy to cut.
After watching this 4 months ago (when the video was 'released'), I knew I needed to get one...not only for cutting custom masks for painting RCs, but also to make my own vinyl auto stickers/decals. Unfortunately, other things (such as getting a Limitless V2, Cross R. HC4, and Kyosho Mini-Zs, as well as moving to Las Vegas) became more important. In the meantime, they released the 3-series. Moving forward, they had some great Black Friday deals (which actually started a couple days before Turkey Day)...and, among them was the Explore Air 2. To make a long story short, it was just delivered, along with the other accessories I ordered. Yahoooooooooo!!! 🤙🏼
I'm thinking back and forward about a Circuit for a long time...and every time when I forgot about it.....some one reminds me again ..grrr....lol..... thank you brother now I have to think about again.... last time I was so far to actually buy the smaller one ( Circuit joy ) but I was not sure if it would cut 0,25 mm Styrene ... so I left it alone.... well thank you anyway for the video, keep it up 😉😁👍
Love my Cricut.. crazy useful. I will say larger logos/graphics cut more smoothly and are easier.. but I've made some reasonable small text graphics with it, too. FUN stuff!!
"Flip vertical" is good if you are manipulating shapes and stuff like that to make a design. There's also an option on the "make it" screen to mirror the image, which would also work for your purpose of flipping the text.
My buddy is a graffics artist and has been doing this for me for several bodies . The last one is insane it is a full wrap of a creep body using all the logos of all the different parts I used for my comp truck all at different angles and some of the logos partially covering edges of other logos. My buddy applied them for me said it was the hardest job he had done in 25 years in the business. I did the painting used the vinyl as a stencil 2 colors hot pink and white.
Thanks Matt! This is for sure a game changer!! I don’t know if you have yet or not, but a how to on a multi color paint job with logos would be legit and VERY helpful to a newbie such as myself
That requires a bit more setup, but it can be done! You have to make a few different cut files to start, and line up a lot of things by hand. At least, that’s how I did it. There’s probably a smarter way!
I bought a Cricut Joy last year just for this type of stuff. It's a smaller format and is for cutting only, but that's all I need it for. Great little machine.
Love my cricut...I have the same machine and make decals for rc race boats...but never gave this a thought....excellent demo...heck...I even learned a new trick and I have been using mine for a couple years....👍
Heck Yeah Matt I've been using my Cricut Cutter for the Paint Masks and the Exterior Graphics on my RC's for a few months now... Weeding is the key on small text like my Corporal Crawler Theme Pro-Line Gladiator on the Gen 7 Sport ✌🤠👍 Having Fun Laughing Playing and RCing 👍😎👍 AOAH 🙏 Stay Safe and Play Healthy My Friend ❣️
Why is it? Some of your best most informative videos. Always cost me money! I do enjoy how you put it in laymans terms. Definitely brings up the confidence level. Always appreciate the info. Right On Brother 👊
Vinyl masking is 100% the way! EVEN if you are hand cutting them. The Vinyl just gives such cleaner lines and tends to bleed so much less. Through school and a couple jobs I've been in charge of vinyl cutters for at least 15 years now and its definitely the only thing i'll use for masks.
I might need to convince my wife she needs one for scrapbooking, so it does not count as another one of my hobby expenses this month. Just picked up my first airbrush the other week to paint RC bodies. Always appreciate the how to videos. Before this video I thought it just created the mask, but thanks for showing the little details like how to handle the inside bits of the letters. That was really a nice solution with the masking tape. I thought about printing on the Prusa a single layer with flex filament, but that would not be as sharp as the vinyl cutter for small details.
I bought my first rc cars very recently....only because she bought a cricut, didn't even know she could use it to create rc wraps......thanks. Now I gotta run see a lady about a new wrap......lol
I have an Air 2 and have many window stickers for 1:1 cars and RC's as well. Have also use printable vinyl with the print & cut feature for making stickers.
I’ve just started making logo banners for my 1/24 scale crawler course with the smaller Cricut Joy. I’m digging the possibilities on my next paint job.
I got a Circuit for my wife for Christmas...I call it "Marge's Bowling Ball"😉. One thing I've discovered is to check the cutting blade for errant pieces of vinyl as it does affect cutting performance before the blade is actually dull...
Appreciate the tips… i typically still click the background on simple even with transparent from a Google image as sometimes it doesn’t remove it completely.
I have a Cricut (the cheap one) and use it to make decals for my RC's (mostly sponsor decals that are no longer available). It's super easy to use and it works great. I have yet to use it to make masks but I will being doing that soon. Another great how-to video!! My thumbs are pointing up.
Good stuff Matt. I’ve had mine for a few months and found that a purpose built weeding tool is far easier to use than a blade(for picking out unwanted vinyl)… of course my eyes aren’t what they used to be, but I really mangled some stuff up before I got one.
Excellent video Matt. I had a vinyl Machine in 2004 when I was racing 1:1 sprint cars. I got tired of paying 600.00+ every time I destroyed a wing. When it came to using multiple colors I used to stack the vinyl. This is a cool machine. Loved learning to use masking tape as a transfer. Great alternative to buying over priced transfer tape Thank you.
