Stencil Borders

Vettra

New member
It is easy to lay down a stencil and shoot a color. My question is- How do you use your stencil when you have borders? In the example attached let's say we have the base color1 Black, then you want the border color 2 White with Color 3 red inside that. Is there a way to register mutliple stencils? Performing this process would be easy if you were painting a simple box but what about intricate logos, graphics and such?


Wings.jpg
 

Brian Dee

Super Moderator
Vettra there are a couple of ways do do this. But I think the easiest way would be to do the colors just as you have numbered them here. Shoot the black first, Then cut your paint mask but don't weed it out. Cut it just as you have presented it here and now apply your transfer tape over the complete image. Now apply the mask and peel or weed out the white. Shoot that,then apply transfer tape over the white area right up to and including the very thin black lines between the wings. Now cut out the red area. You can cut right on the centre of the very thin black border lines, Then weed the red areas out , now shoot the red and your done. Or you can do it in 3 colors of vinyl. Hope this helps.
 

Vettra

New member
Thanks Brian- That is a great scenario and I know will work in this situation. May be a little trickey though when doing a logo with small point text. But ifit was easy- everyone could do it.

Thanks again
 

Vettra

New member
Stencil Border Technique

Brian,
I will go through the process you described. I was thinking however that there has to be a way to accomblish a good border using the plotter. So here is what I did. It may be hard to see as I used white vinyl on white illustration board with tan tape.

1. I created the vector with the border but saved it out as (2) individual files. One was the full outside and the other was the interior.
2. I Placed the outside stencil
3. I then laid down tape in upper left and lower right corners for registration and shot the purple.
4. I pulled up the first vinyl and placed the interior- making sure to register in th corners.
5. Shot second color.

Some things to keep in mind:
A. The willie G skull pictured is about 31/2" across. Special care may need to be used when using smaller sized objects.
B. The wider the border the more will be more forgiving for slight registration errors.
C. This was of course on flat board but I am sure the process will be the same on a curved fender, tank or panel.

View picture-
 

Brian Dee

Super Moderator
yes thats it,you got it. But as you said it will be a little trickier when you put it on a curved surface. There are a couple of way to do this though. You can get vinyl that has a little stretch to it. But you have to slit the arears with an xacto blade that pucker up on you. Then trim the overlaps to clean up those edges. I have an article on applying masks to curved surfaces. Which I will did up for you. Sounds like your realy getting in to it.
 

Vettra

New member
Thanks- the simple statement of "But you have to slit the arears with an xacto blade that pucker up on you. Then trim the overlaps to clean up those edges." will be very helpfull. Specially until my proper vinyl gets in. I am doing a work up and will upload pics maybe tomorrow.
 

Brian Dee

Super Moderator
Sounds good Vettra. Once you get the proper paint mask you will find it much easier to work with. Here's a little hint. I don't use xacto blades. I use scapel blades as they are so much sharper. The edges are honed. Rather than ground as on the xacto's. They are a little more expensive but are certainly worth it. Just the weight of the knife will cut.Easier to re sharpen to. Just strop them on a piece of leather,with a little jewellers rouge, and your good to good. Looking forward to the pics.
 

Vettra

New member
I have heard of them being refered to I just don't know how they are set up. The scalpels I am familiar with are all inclusive whereas the blade is conkoined with the handle. I haven't seen individual blades.
 

Vettra

New member
First off I want apologize to all my CPF friends for not being around for a while. Since early this year my primary biz (video production) has been extrmemly busy. I haven't had much of a chance to paint even.

As far as the border on the stencil. You are on the right track. You can make registrations to help line up your stencils. Keep in mind the thinner and more detailed the stencil is, the less forgiving it is for being off even slightly.

Here is one I did. Hope this helps

Fresh_Tank.jpg
 

Brian Dee

Super Moderator
good to see you back Vettra and glad that your buisness is doing well to, espesially in this economy.
Brian.

Oh,and very nice paint job. ya got skills brother.
Brian.
 

TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
First off I want apologize to all my CPF friends for not being around for a while. Since early this year my primary biz (video production) has been extrmemly busy. I haven't had much of a chance to paint even.

As far as the border on the stencil. You are on the right track. You can make registrations to help line up your stencils. Keep in mind the thinner and more detailed the stencil is, the less forgiving it is for being off even slightly.

Here is one I did. Hope this helps

Good to see you're still around. Glad to hear business is doin' great!!!!
 

fontgeek

New member
You can get scalpel blades online through ebay, etc.
1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg

If your design is for a set of stencils you want to use repeatedly, then you might try a similar method to the one listed already.
Keep in mind that it's much easier for black to cover other colors than it is for other colors to cover black, especially if you are airbrushing those colors.
First, draw out your design or have the program of your choice do it. I did mine in Illustrator, this is a quick and dirty version based upon the original file posted. i use triangles for registration marks, they are easy for the plotter to cut and give me easy reference points to align my artwork. I place them far enough away from the design area so that I can put down a patch of blue, painters tape in those spots. This lets me paint the triangles at the same time as the rest of the areas, letting me make sure that everything lines up perfectly, and without effecting how the stencils will lay against the substrate. I've shown two different versions for the black areas of the paint job, one is a complete fill that I would place the red stencil over. I'd fill that area with white (over the black parts) and after that dried I'd shoot the red. The other option is the version on the left, it has just the outlines but with bridges to support the interior panels/masks so that they can fill with the red. Once I'm finished with the painting, I can peel away my bits of painters tape that cover the registration mark areas.
 

yingxuy

New member
There are several ways to do this though. You can get the vinyl, it has a little stretch. But you have sewn xacto blade, folding your arears. Then clean the edge of the trim overlap.
 
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