In a moment of weakness, I volunteered to do a table-top clinic about the Cricut at the Railway Modellers’ Meet, which is coming up at the end of May. I may take the opportunity to work on the Pembroke Milling Company’s warehouse, but I also want to show some of the other ideas I’ve worked out over the years I’ve had this tool.
One of those ideas is to print and cut the wooden sides of railway cars. It may be a retrograde approach, but having seen some card models made by the Old Masters back in the day when they had to make their own paper, the material is able to stand up to any plastic model. The idea of skipping the paint and decal step is intoxicating.
I’ve struggled with the print and cut feature before, and the use of glossy photo paper, which is supposed to be best for colour and detail reproduction, made it worse. With my old printer, I could never get an intense registration mark to help the cutter find the image. It worked with the new Epson on plain paper, but with glossy paper there was too much glare. I almost gave up, but then decided to try it one last time after hitting the paper with Dullcote. Either that coating or the fact that by then it was night enabled the machine to believe it had registered itself. It hadn’t, and the cut was wildly misaligned.
I’m filled with hope however, by the scoring step, which made a very nice, if slightly understated beaded siding effect. With every other scored line doubled, you can just discern the difference. Curiously, the scoring is slightly misaligned from the cutting; I will simply lengthen the boards and avoid this problem with the next attempt.
Pembroke:87 