Cutting Ameritowne Buildings,Need Help

Lary,

This probably doesn't help, but I use a band saw.  I think MicroMark makes plastic-cutting wheels for a Dremel.

Dave

Razor saw, hack saw or even a table saw. I have a worn out blade I put in the table saw to cut think plastics.....go very slow.....it will stink! Be very careful too!

are you changing the geometry of the building? if so you will need to angle the inside of the remaining walls which will no longer be square..  you wil also have to change the roof angles.

 I use a combination of things to cut various wall materials, first I carefully scribe the wall with a sharp exacto several passes along a straightedge wil do it, then iA use a fine toothed hacksaw blade or a zonan saw to finish the cuts, to taber the angle of the edges,, use a self stick sadning disk mounted to a smooth surface and set the angle gradully running the wall along the paper to achieve the angle desired.

 ake care and cut a cardboard mock up of your building to get all the cuts right first..

I cut these with a band saw and then used a hand file to true the edge.  One side wall piece was used for the two short sides pictured.

Tight corner space.

The Zona saw is an irreplaceable tool in the shop. Small flash is best served with an Xacto blade. Go slow....as AMC Dave advises and take a deep breath when cutting. I often use a steel rule clamped down as a guide to get a straight cut 

Thanks to all of you above who posted answers.  Great ideas and I think I will try the hack saw method after I scribe it with an X acto knife.

Thanks again.

I can consider this post closed because I have all the ideas I need.  Can't wait for the buildings to arrive hopefully next week, got to find the hack saw with a fine blade.

Thanks again

Lary

don't use the hack saw in the frame, tape an end and use the blade like a punch saw..

It is really is the best way to do cuts to Ameritown and other buildings.  I mark the cut edge with a length of masking tape, making sure to locate the cut line right along a mortar line -provide perfect perpendicular guides up and down and sideways - then I cut right alone them with one edge of the cut right at that line.  If I need a corner I cut at 45 degree angle on both walls where they will meet. 

All three buildings below involved cuts.  Leftmost is Nero Wolf's townhouse, which required several 22.5 deg cuts to make the bay window front. If you look hard you can just see just a trace of another cut on the right side - right between the posts of the double-wide windows: I cut out everything between two banks of windows to get those doublewide ones.   The building next door, The Thin Man, is just a narrowed one.  the building all the way to the right does not look like it needed a cut perhaps, but it is in fact wider than the standard Ameritown fronts: I cut two and glued them to get a "superwide."  The cut is hard to see under the best of circumstances but in this case is hidden behind the black downspout that goes from roof to sidewalk just to the left of the doorway: this is a model of 221B Baker Street as in the Jeremy Brett series and the downspout was in that unusual place.  So I cut the panels so the downspout would hide any trace of a cut. I've got three good razor saws, but I couldn't do nearly as well with them - a band saw is a godsend for bashing and scratch building.  

What is the best way to cut these walls without ruining them?  The walls appear to be 1/4 inch thick so I don't know if scribing with an x atco knife and snapping the building would work???? 

I am in this delema too abeit with the blank brick wall cutting right across. I tried the "scoring and snapping" method but with poor results that ended up witha lot of filing on the cut edges.

Because the plastic material is so thick, band saw and/or dremmel[secured] is really the only way to go.