Surgically Separating MTH Buildings Anyone?

I cut up an MTH Public Works building to use as a passenger station backdrop.

 This was from a couple of weeks ago:

Here's where we are now:

Rod...absolutely post pictures!!  I am always looking forward to posts that explain the story in pictures!

Sean...I have been following your thread on this build and it looks fantastic!

Alan

Thank you Alan!  That's very kind of you.

Rod - yes, please post some pics.  It's always interesting and educational to see what others have done.

Zeke;

Fantastic work. That station looks great.

Here is an MTH country house I cut in two longways. It was pretty simple to do.

I usually try to get one or two lights in each part once done, and I cover the back of each piece over with colored paper so that light can't shine out onto the wall or backdrop.

More to follow.

Rod

Here is a 2 story hardware building.

That's the back of the hardware on the left and the front of the house on the right.

Here is the front of the hardware.

I put a string of 5 **** lights in it. One in each display window, one in the door, and two upstairs.

More to follow.

Rod

This one is the front of Katz deli. The back is elsewhere.

This is both halves of Jenny Lee Bakery.

This was more challenging finding just the right spot to cut it where is caused the least amount of damage.

 The back is simply a small apartment block.

The front represents the original bakery fairly well.

Rod

Hi Rod,

Some very impressive work, I kit bashed the MTH banks

I will need to do this. Please post as many pictures as you want. Thanks for the suggestions. They should transfer to buildings I already have but can't use in the back run of my layout.

Bill Berresford

Great shots and ideas everyone. What are you using to cut the structures? A band saw? What type of blade? Thanks.

Alex;

OMG that station is fantastic! You are the MASTER as always.

I sure hope you have plenty of space for it!

If you are building it for a client, he will need a pickup truck to take it home........

The first building I cut up I used a couple of different hand saws, including a hack saw. It worked, but its hard to stay on a straight line.

The rest I wound up cutting apart using a table saw with a fine tooth scroll type blade. This made nice straight cuts using either the square or the rip fence.

For building comprised of two pieces, such as the country house, I separated them first and cut each main piece separately. Worked OK.

For squarish buildings like the hardware, I cut pieces including about 2" of the sidewalls and roof. The rest of the sides wind up as scrap.

I usually try to avoid cutting through any windows, as they would be hard to reassemble in small pieces. On MTH buildings the windows are easily removable, so you could cut one separately using a fine coping or jewellers saw if you had to I suppose.

The town house and row house series should be easy to work with but I never tried any of these. 

I looked at splitting one of the farm house series, but decided the roof and porch does not lend itself to the task at all.

It looks like the storefront types (like the Zangs hotel or the dry goods) would be easy enough to do. You would wind up with a front that is only half as deep, and the back which would look OK as a small boarding house, including the stairway to the upper story. I have not done one of these, yet! Never say never.

It also looks like the 3 story buildings (such as Dewey Cheatum and Howe) would be doable, but again I have not tried one yet.

Rod

Hi Rod,

  You have what I call hands of gold.You're a superb craftsman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's really amazing what you're doing with these buildings

Thanks,

Alex

Hi ALex;

Coming from you, I am humbled. Aw, shucks.....

Seriously, I consider myself more of a hacker-whacker-basher than any sort of a skilled artisan.

I look to guys like you and the other truly talented modelers on this forum for inspiration.

Keep up the great work!

The best,

Rod