Greetings,
I was asked on the Roden Lozenge Decals thread if I would like to show everyone how I have developed a method for cutting stensils for and spraying roundles and other markings.

Now that my wife and I have settled in in our new home, I'll make a start.

Here's a shot of the tools that I believe are necessary as a minimum to create your own stensils.


The compass you see here was inherited from my Grandfather, who was an industrial artist. I don't know if these are available in any shop in this form anymore. Scrounge the second hand shops... You might be lucky.

And here a shot of the two different materials I use for masking and stensils.


The Leukoflex is an adhesive film that I picked up at the local pharmacy. The other tape is just 40mm Tamiya brand. The Leukoflex is cheaper, and I find it easier to use as it has no fibres that might create rough edges.

The fist thing I do is to clean the back surface of a small cutting mat with alcohol. I then place a section of tape and press lightly across the whole piece.


I have cobbled a blade into the paint resevoir section of the compass.

Now I use the kit decal as a basis to set the measure of the compass. Alternatively, if you know the dimensions of your roundel, simply use a steel rule.


Then lightly trace a circle on your masking material. I stress lightly as I have found that if you use too much pressure with this type of compass, the blade will wander off the circle. You will know when you have cut through the masking material by the change in feel as the blade travels (another advantage of the Leukoflex)

I will have to fire up the air brush before I continue, but here are some examples of how the end result comes up.



I will continue soon... I promise.

Cheers,

Hugh

Most excellent! Hugh you are the man!

This is really handy!! I was even looking for Olfa compass cutter - this article is really helpful.

Although I have to invent some way to attach the blade to the compass.