Cricut - A modelers best friend

[Matt]

Blades are pretty durable, and relatively inexpensive. (I buy them in Bulk thru Aliexpress) you can also strip and re-stick the mats with adhesive.

[Mead93]

Hadn’t even considered these for scratch building, definitely going to use it to finish off my Churchill build

[justsendit]

I’m currently checking out the ‘Cricut Design Space’ software on my Mac.
Note: Supported file types: .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .svg, or .dxf (does not accept .pdf files).

[Mead93]

Too bad, wonder if it’s possible to save a high res version of a PDF to PNG or JPG

[justsendit]

Depends on what software you’re using. I’d recommend creating your artwork in a capable app. Export the file (Supported file types: .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .svg, or .dxf (Cricut does not accept .pdf files). Upload your conversion using the ‘Upload’ button in Cricut’s Canvas.

Note: I don’t own a Cricut just yet. I’ve only been testing the software thus far. … Might have to bite that bullet.

HTH.

[Mead93]

That’s a good idea! I find the design space super friendly, but more capable photo edits are probably best for the getting the image you want

[DennisatAutoloader]

For my custom decal business I generally use my Cricut to make paint masks for white markings like stars, it’s a really useful tool that any modeller who likes making unique paint schemes should get!

[Striker]

I’m on the fence on buying a cutter but now I’m ready to take the leap. If it’ll do plastic then it should do thin cardboard (say 2-3 sheets of paper thick). I plan on making doors and windows for my wargame buildings and save the tedious task of cutting each one separately. This should work for anything from fantasy to sci-fi.

[varanusk]

Yes, it is quite easy to convert a PDF to JPG. There are online tools and free software for that, personally I use PDFill , which has also several other uses.

[Mead93]

It has multiple cardboard settings so I think it’ll do cardboard just fine! They really are versatile little machines

[Stryker45]

Thanks for a wonderful review of your new toy. Like others, I too have been thinking about getting something like this but was not sure how user friendly it was. Looking at your process I think I might take a plunge and use the Michaels or Hobby lobby coupon. Very useful tool.

[18bravo]

If you need a specific shape but don’t know if you can draw it precisely enough (aircraft interior supports for example) is there a way to run a stylus around an existing piece to replicate it over and over?

[Mead93]

Are we talking images online or you have a part and want to reproduce it, you can do both, but each would require a slightly different workflow. For example, say i have this photo from which I want to remove the swastika (hope this doesn’t offend anyone, but I already had to do this to get a swastika mask for the tail of a Stuka that didn’t I’m with the decal)

You can upload this into the app:

Once in the app you are taken to a screen where you can edit the imported image:

Using the remove tool in the bottom left you can remove things from the image you don’t want, this works based mostly on color as far as I can tell. So I select that, and then say I want all of the white and red gone, I click on a red pixel and white pixel. Now I have this:

The top right shows you what will be cut out. Now I still only want the Center swastika, so I need the black ring gone. I can remove this using the remove tool but setting a smaller search radius so it doesn’t affect the part of interest.

The residual can be cleaned up with the erase tool. This is the exact process I followed for the stencil letters. So if you have a good image of the thing you need, it’s very easy to make the cricut cut it. If you don’t, option 2 is to trace around the image with pencil or a stylus in another app, and then import the outline onto cricut. I believe cricut uses some edge detection software to try and guess (very well I might add) as to where the edges for cutting should be

[bwilt]

Very clear eplanation again, thanks!

[18bravo]

Yes, the second option. I have a piece made, but don’t relish making 22 of them. Plus, I could offer them to others.

Thanks.

[Mead93]

No worries. There is a bit of a learning curve, but after a few hours I was up and running.

[Mead93]

Yup very easy to do then!

[justsendit]

Thank’s for the great tutorial. Looking forward to giving the Cricut a trial run. I clicked the ‘Proceed to Checkout’ button just minutes ago.

—mike

[Mead93]

I can see myself using it a lot! Especially with the great suggestions people proposed for scratch building

[Mead93]

Did a test spray on an old Pz III before using the masks on my archer. I’m pretty impressed with how the stencil letters worked out