EDIT 04-06: It is done and on the layout. It came together quickly at the end . . .
EDIT 04/04: see my second set of photos posted this morning, further down the thread..
-------------Original posting--------------------------------------------
As observed in several other threads on these forums, the signs on Menard's Moe's Garage are placed on specially shaped flat areas, and not ribbed. If you remove the sign (they're paper and come off easily) you have this weird shaped area to deal with.
First, I do not know if resin dust is bad for you. I don't plan to find out.
I had this small area of the Studebaker sign on one building I had cut that remained, and decided to start/experiment with it. It had a big area (shown with blade below) and some bits of the tops of the script Studebaker lettering (to the right) to cut out.
This is a hacksaw blade with around 16-20 teeth per inch. I held it by hand (convenient, did not hurt, forces me to not apply too much pressure) and cut grooves straight with the ribs in the flat area. NOT IN THE PHOTO: I used my fingers of the other hand as a guide to keep in precisely positioned, but in this phot those fingers are holding the camera!
NOTE A COMPLICATION: the building is rendered with five ribs high, five low, five high, five low, etc., to mirror the over/under style of construction. Eventually you have to cut the "low rib" areas down in height. But back to the grooves. I used this hacksaw blad eto cut 1/16 inch deep groves at each rib valley.
Here I have done about half . . .
I had removed half of the sign but did the other half through the paper to see. That works perfectly and saves time: no removing the sign first!
Those hacksaw cuts were much too narrow. This wood cutting blade from a reciprocating saw worked perfectly to widen them. By rotating it slight at an angle around the cut, I rounded the rib ridges a bit, too, digging down deeper . . . NOTE: this saw DOES NOT WORK WELL as the saw to make that initial straight cut aligned with each rib, at least it did not for me. I recommend using a fine-bladed hacksaw to get a straight groove going, then go to this puppy.
sorry this is a lousy photo, my camera would not focus on the grain of this file. It is a fine grade wood file, maybe 25 teeth per inch, rounded on one side so the edge if very "V" It removes the resin fine and with a little work I got pretty fast and rounding out a rib. I then used 220 grit sandpaper: folded to an edge and run through each at different angles, it made short work of smoothing them out.
I applied some silver paint to see. Not perfect, but certain good . . . I'm going to do the other signs this way.