N Scale Rocky Mountaineer - modern version.

[craigolio1]

Having owned a Silhouette cutter, I think you went a better route.  The plotter cutters cut curves as short straight lines instead of a fluid curve. Even if the laser cutter acts the same way, at least the curves with your hobby knife which you'll use to cut from the laser template will be actual curves.  The sharper the curve, the more this matters.

Oh I did not know this. Thanks for the info. Well I guess we’ll see when I get my templates.

[peteski]

I have old Graphtec Craft ROBO cutter, and while it is true that since it is a stepper-motor-based cutter/plotter, I have not seen any noticeable stepping in curved cuts.  I believe its resolution is 300 steps/inch.

I still say, if you have access to it, give it a try. It would sure save you a lot of stencil cutting time.  Also,with 1/8" thick acrylic you will have to make sure to get the knife right to the inside edge of the stencil for accurate cuts.

Your artwork will have to be in vector format, but since you are planning on using a laser cutter, it likely is in vector format.

[craigolio1]

I have old Graphtec Craft ROBO cutter, and while it is true that since it is a stepper-motor-based cutter/plotter, I have not seen any noticeable stepping in curved cuts.  I believe its resolution is 300 steps/inch.

I still say, if you have access to it, give it a try. It would sure save you a lot of stencil cutting time.  Also,with 1/8" thick acrylic you will have to make sure to get the knife right to the inside edge of the stencil for accurate cuts.

Your artwork will have to be in vector format, but since you are planning on using a laser cutter, it likely is in vector format.

Thanks for the input. My buddy is working on the templates already so I’ll see how it works. But it’s great to have another option as well.

Craig

[craigolio1]

I’ve been thinking more and more about the ease of having the masks cut on a cutter.

I put together two sets which can fit on the masking sheets that Tamiya offers.

The first sheet would do the two locos, the generator car, and two coaches.



The second sheet would do three coaches.



The Tamiya sheets come in a 5 pack, so with one pack of sheets I should be able to mask two locos, the generator car, and 14 coaches. Seems like a pretty good value to me.

Craig

[peteski]

Excellent!  Give it a try Craig.  BTW, what software did you use to design those masks?

Also, if the craft cutter you will use can hold a pen instead of a blade (like mine does) so it can be used as a plotter, instead of wasting the adhesive sheets it would make sense to do a test plot to see how well the masks fit the cars

[craigolio1]

Excellent!  Give it a try Craig.  BTW, what software did you use to design those masks?

Also, if the craft cutter you will use can hold a pen instead of a blade (like mine does) so it can be used as a plotter, instead of wasting the adhesive sheets it would make sense to do a test plot to see how well the masks fit the cars

Thanks.

I used Inkscape.

I’ve already printed out paper copies to test. I’ve used paper copies to test the fit on the actual models and it’s all good.

Craig
 

[keeper]

Aaaaaand a final variant of which they most recently took delivery of which has the larger windows and also a unique truck design.

Well, those trucks look like European ones. The trucks on this Swiss coach look very similar.

https://www.fleischmann.de/fen/products/coaches-and-wagons/passenger-coaches/890321-1st-class-passenger-coach-with-service-compartment-sbb.html

[craigolio1]

Well, those trucks look like European ones. The trucks on this Swiss coach look very similar.

https://www.fleischmann.de/fen/products/coaches-and-wagons/passenger-coaches/890321-1st-class-passenger-coach-with-service-compartment-sbb.html

Oh, I do believe these cars came from Europe. I don’t know too much about their production.

[CNR5529]

They were built by Stadler Rail in Switzerland, thats why the trucks look European.

[craigolio1]

They were built by Stadler Rail in Switzerland, thats why the trucks look European.

I thought maybe you and I had talked about his car.