MikeOxon

Experiment 2 - I repeated my trial of inkjet printing onto styrene; this time using a sprayed coat of 'Hycote' white primer (from an auto-parts shop). I think this has given the best result in this series and no hairspray involved! The print is not as sharp as when the same image is printed on photo paper but actually looks better 'in the flesh' than the photo I have a couple of Cleminson chassis kits on the way, so must get on with building some coaches now! Mike

I like the needle idea! i use phosphor bronze wire for pick-ups and always have trouble getting it to the right shape. I shall try your suggestion

Following your suggestion, Mike, I brushed some white primer onto the styrene and tried a print. It was just a quick experiment but the ink took very well to the surface, dried quickly and showed good colour. My rough brushmarks are very obvious and, to do this properly, I would have to spray thinned primer (as you suggested, of course). I suppose it's a bit like making a fresco! Worth pursuing further I'm still thinking about what materials to use. Thin (10 thou) styrene needs to be laminated, which brings its own problems, whereas card is easier to print and strong. If Pendon are happy with card, why do people feel the need to use styrene? Mike

Whatever you're most comfortable with - it's the result that counts by the way, JCL, you can get to the Task Manager in Windows simply by right-clicking on the task bar at the bottom of the screen.

there's quite a a neat coil spring arrangement shown at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/62699-rays-4mm-workbench/?p=810721

Sleep on it! You'll have the solution in the morning

This problem seems to be known to Silhouette. see http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/faq/solution/runtime-error-encountered-when-launching-software They suggest that it is related to system permissions, which is a common problem, especially with Windows Vista. Their proposed solution, which is a complete re-install, seems rather drastic and suggests to me that there is a bug in their software somewhere. They also suggest a 'work around' as follows: [quote} "If continued concerns met, perform the following steps: Save the following file to your computer:sstudio1.dll Right-click and select to Extract the sstudio1.dll file Copy and paste the extracted file to the following location: C: > ProgramFiles(x86) > Silhouette StudioNOTE: If prompted to overwrite, please do so Attempt to re-run the Silhouette Studio® program" I've not had the problem, so have not tried this, but it might be useful.

Looks like you've made a great start -and excellent photography too! it really helps to get down to the lineside. I shall look forward to seeing how this develops and how you finish your Box tunnel. If you are into photo-editing, then I find it inspirational to try superimposing back-scenes onto your photos, to give an idea of how you might want it to look eventually. The following is an example of how your trains could look in a 'real' landscape : Mike

My little railway uses old Hornby-Dublo track with 15" radius curves. My son used to hurl 'Golden Fleece', with a few coaches, round it at break-neck speed - no problem! You may have a problem with more modern stock - especially long coupled-drivers locos, as they are not designed for such tight curves. Small flanges on modern wheels also hold the curves less well. If your coaches are all bogies and your wagons short 4-wheelers, then these should be fine.

These videos are a mine of information for modelling. On the Glasgow film, I noted that a very high proportion of the traffic was flat-bed carts. They all seemed to be travelling near the kerb, whereas larger wagons seemed to use the centre of the road. The man with the hand-barrow seems to be keeping up a good speed! Apart from the trams, there seem be very few carriages for people. Mike

Yes it is certainly possible! see my blog post at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-13122-instant-chocolate-with-cream/ I used PVA adhesive to stick the layers together. I'm still trying to decide on the best method to use. I notice that there an article in Railway Modeller (Feb '14) which shows printed sides stuck over clear acetate to make an N-gauge coach.

I had a go at the 'hairspray' method with qualified success. My first attempt was rather blotchy, so I tried spraying three layers (allowed to dry between coats) before printing. My HP printer allows various 'paper' choices, so I tried 'transparency film'. The print was reasonable but the colours are rather muted. Also the black ink seemed to 'take' less well than the colours. Example below: For the record, the hairspray was VO5 Strong Hold (chosen more or less at random - low price). Mike

I noticed in that post that the blade is claimed to be exposed in 0.1 mm increments. For example, a blade level of 1 = 0.1 mm, a level of 2 = 0.2 mm, etc. If this is accurate, then 10 thou styrene (0.25 mm) should not need more than a '3' setting.

There's a potential for confusion over the term 'thickness setting'. In Silhouette manual-speak, it actual refers to the pressure applied to the cutter. Quote: "The Thickness is measured in approximately 7 grams force per setting and has 33 levels. In other words, the Silhouette can cut from 7 grams up to 230 grams force. Thicker materials will likely require higher Thickness levels." I found, when cutting HP printer paper, that the 'chads' did not press out cleanly when I used a 'thickness' setting of 15 but were fine at 33. It seems that, for card materials, a higher pressure is a good idea, providing the blade projection has been adjusted correctly.

I had problems with objects changing size when I transferred from AutoSketch via DXF. For all those, like me, who do not read manuals thoroughly, there are settings in 'Studio' for import options, in the File | Preferences menu. Make sure you select the option to import "as is" - mine was initially set to "Fit to Page" I also note that there are printer options too - mine was on 300dpi, which I have changed to 1200dpi - hopefully for crisper details. Finally, there is a test page, which can be used to fine-tune the calibration of the cutter. Mike Mike

After a bit of Googling, i found some stuff called 'Inkaid',which is supposed to make almost any surface 'printable'. A UK supplier is at http://www.artvango.co.uk/pdfs/catalogue/avg_p20-27_drawingsurfaces_2009.pdf The most likely product for non-porous surfaces (eg plastics & metals) seems to be: Clear Gloss Type II Developed to eliminate the two stage coating (Adhesive & Clear Gloss) needed on many non-porous surfaces. 41501 236ml £9.95 41502 473ml £18.95 41503 944ml £36.95 I'm still deciding the best way ahead but have this on my list of things I might try. Mike

I'm a kid with a new toy at the moment. There seem to be so many possibilities but I'm going to have to settle down on a single project soon and actually build something Mike

These cutting machines do seem to be opening up new possibilities in the modelling world! As my next post shows, there may even be no need for painting at all, since the Silhouette machine can align the cuts with a printed image. Mike

Thanks JCL. I have some HP Inkjet Transparency Film, so I'll give that a try. Another thought was to apply a film of Inkjet Transfer film to the plasticard before printing and cutting. I'll let you know how I get on! Mike

That's a good point. I shall try re-doing mine at a larger size and then shrink as you suggest! The lettering and logos were a bit fuzzy on my initial attempt! I wonder if there is anything one could coat onto 10thou plasticard, in order to make an ink-jet printable surface? Mike(Oxon)

Another excellent tutorial, JCL. As it happens, i (along with many others, I expect) have been exploring along similar lines! My method was different from yours, in that I started from a cutting diagram and then added colour to that. I have posted about it in my blog at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-13122-instant-chocolate-with-cream/ so will not duplicate here. I have suggested various ways for getting the image of the cutting lines into Photoshop. As MikeTrice pointed out, the livery details and all the natural wear patterns are brought over from the photograph! Mike

Following my initial trials with the Silhouette Portrait (described in previous blog posts), I began to think about pre-printing the sides, so that no painting would be needed at all! The Silhouette machines have the important provision to align the cutter with a printed image, which makes this possible. Just after I had been exploring this, JCL posted another excellent tutorial in the Silhouette Forum at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1298181 but, since I have adopted a complementary approach, I think it is worth posting my method as well. JCL started from an image and placed the cut-lines onto it, whereas I already had a vector drawing, made with AutoSketch, and wanted to add colour to it. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the basic Studio software does not facilitate printing the cut pattern to an ordinary printer (EDIT - see footnote). One possibility would be to draw with a pen (using the Silhouette pen holder) and then scan the drawing into Photoshop. I found, however, that I could transfer the image directly, by using the 'Print Screen' command in Windows. Providing you have a reasonably high screen resolution (mine is 1680x1050) and you zoom into the drawing so that it fills as much of the screen as possible, then you can get a reasonable image by importing the screen-grab into Photoshop, with the 'New from Clipboard' command. I used the 'Sharpen Edges' command, to make the image crisper, and the 'Levels' control, to improve the contrast between the cut lines and the background. I believe that 'Inkscape' has provision to export a drawing directly as a bitmap, so this could also transfer a drawing to Photoshop. I use an old version of AutoSketch, which does not have this facility, but I do have a very handy free program called 'PDF Creator' (from http://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator ). This utility installs as a printer driver, which then allows almost any document to be 'printed' to a PDF file. Once the image is in PDF format, by whichever method, it can be opened in Photoshop and edited there, as indicated below: Once in Photoshop, the various layers of a cutting diagram can be coloured as appropriate and the final image saved as a TIFF file, which can then be opened in Silhouette Studio. Open the TIFF image in Studio, copy it and paste it into the cutting diagram. Use the 'Arrangement' command to sent the TIFF image to the back and then re-size and align the image with the cutting marks as accurately as possible on the screen (use a magnified image and make sure that 'Snap to Grid' is 'off'). Once you are content with the alignment, turn 'on' the Registration Marks in Studio and Print the image on your colour printer (in my case an HP Deskjet 6980), using the highest print-quality settings and good quality heavy-weight paper, which will form your model. The print-out will include the alignment marks, which will be read by the Silhouette cutter. Attach the print-out to the cutting mat, make sure that 'Alignment Marks' are still turned on, and start cutting the image. The cutter will first seek out the alignment marks and should respond with a screen message that they have been found. The cuts will then be made in the appropriate places on your image. I tried all this and it worked very well, so I became more ambitious! I had already coloured an old photograph of my chosen U29 carriage, so decided to see if I could import this into Photoshop and incorporate it into my cutting diagram. My method was to open both the real coach photo and the cutting diagram, alongside each other in Photoshop. I adjusted the photo of the coach side to be roughly the same size as the cutting diagram as shown below: [ Then I selected the cutting diagram and pasted it over the photograph. Make a duplicate of the background ('Layers' menu), so that the image can be moved and re-sized. Next, reduce the opacity of the top image to about 40%, so that the photo shows through, select the photo layer and adjust both its size and position for an exact fit. Re-set the top layer opacity to 100% and select the areas where you want the photo to show through, then use the 'Cut' command (Edit menu). There's more about manipulating layers in this way on my website at http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming/layers.htm I superimposed this image on the cutting diagram in Silhouette Studio, as described above, and cut out the layers to produce the 4mm-scale coach side shown below. This is just a test assembly (and not firmly stuck together) but the alignment seems to be very good and I find it satisfying to think that this model shows all the scratches and wear patterns that were on the original coach, on the day it was photographed in the 19th century! Mike Next Post Footnote (added Aug 2014) thanks to a post by JCL, I now know that it is possible to print a cutting diagram from the Silhouette software. See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1542453 "To print out the outline of your objects, you need to select all of the objects you need to print, then click on the "Open the Line Style Window" button (to the left of the "A" and tick the "Print Lines of Selected Shapes" box."

Sorry, Peter, but just too much clutter for my liking - wires, chain link, cars, strange things growing out of the roof of 60011, etc Mike

Sounds good. one could try using the ink-jet printable transfer film from, for example, http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/ for a thinner 'conformal' coating. I thought of another possibility for the cutter :- to produce outside framing to fit over the printed Hornby clerestory sides! If I had any to try, I'd give it a go myself but others might find the idea useful.

After the diversion caused by the arrival of my CB09 blade holder, which works very well, I have returned to exploring how to construct a laminated coach side. After preparing the drawings for the framing, described previously, it proved to be relatively simple to create the other layers - merely a matter of deleting unwanted elements from the original drawing. The outer layer is, of course, the framing, then the main body side that only has the window cut-outs and, finally, the inner layer with cut-outs for the drop-lights. I show these three layers, together with a montage of all three, on the AutoSketch screen-shot below After cutting these out on a single sheet of card, I could not resist painting the layers and assembling them as a 'proof of principle'. I coloured the layers individually, which was very easy to do - no need to work carefully around the edges, as on a moulded kit! The photo below shows the laminated side, mounted against a side of my Low Siphon, to show how a finished model might look. The opposite side is, largely, just a mirror-image of this one, which is a simple command in the AutoSketch software, but there is a trap for the unwary! The doors are still 'hung' the same way round so, after flipping the entire drawing, I selected each door individually and 'flipped' it back to the original orientation. Some coach designs will, of course, not be symmetrical, so separate drawings would be needed for each side. Having sorted out the basics and learned how to 'drive' the software and the cutting machine, it's now time to get on with some proper modelling. I intend to use 10 thou plastic card and will try the scheme suggested by uax6, in his thread at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79446-coach-bodging/?p=1272768 , to achieve the 'tumble-home' in the sides. For the chassis, I will use a simple brass sheet, folded at the edges, while the undergear will use a 'Brassmasters' Cleminson assembly. Mike Next Post p.s. as a target to aim for. see MikeTrice's 6-wheel coach construction at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1278380 I shall be pleased if I get anywhere close