I am planning my shelf layout and I know will have to modify and kit bash some some buildings. I was thinking about getting one of these to cut walls, sides, roofs, etc:
http://www.micromark.com/Chop-It,9547.html
Will this be able to cutt the plastic in model structure kits or will I need something more heavy duty?
The cutting area is only the size of a razor blade. A handy tool but probably not what you’re looking for. I think the best way will be a supply of fresh X-acto blades and a straight edge. Score the area you want to cut and then snap.
That will work for strip styrene or basswood and the like, but not for walls and long cuts. It’s very useful when trying to make cuts at common angles rather than straight.
Use a hobby knife and a metal straight edge or a razor saw.
The bottom line, though is that there’s no silver bullet. A well rounded tool box is your best friend.
Micro Mark also sells jewelers saws and a variety of fine and ultra fine blades. Buy a jewelers saw and blades instead.
Rich
If you’re cutting up building kits, especially larger parts such as walls or roofs, a utility knife will work better than a hobby knife or any type of saw, and the blades are a lot cheaper. Use a straightedge and change the blades often. For clean-up work on long cuts, use a mill file rather than smaller needle files.
If you’re making structures for a shelf-type layout, buying a large sheet of .060" styrene (check “Plastic Suppliers” in the Yellow Pages) can allow you to use all of the kit parts where they’ll be visible: use the plain styrene to make new walls and /or bracing for the unseen side of the structures.
Here’s a kitbash of a couple of Walthers Waterfront Warehouse kits, although none of the structures in the first photo have detailed back walls.
I used the leftovers to build this chopped-off structure for the front of the layout. I helps to disguise an entry to staging tracks:
The wall on the aisle is plain styrene, although the usually unseen counterpart opposite wall is part of the kit on this structure. Here’s a view from the staging track:
The large station structure, seen in the background in the photo below, was built from plain .060" sheet styrene, with windows and doors left over from
When in doubt, break out the dremel.
For strips, ok, but I find it very hard to cut a very straight line over a long distance with a Dremel.
Look for a plastic cutting or scoring tool. It is a blade that has a hook on the end. You run it along a straight edge and it makes a grove in the plastic. Make about 6 passes and then you can snap the part along the score.
I have two different kinds and it is the best thing for cutting plastic I have seen yet.
That is Micro Mark’s knock off of the old reliable North West Short Line Chopper. I have the original and can testify only to its high quality so go with NWSL if you can.
It is meant to cut pieces of strip wood or strip plastic to a certain fixed length, or to a certain angle. It would not cut broad expanses of plastic such as a structure wall. Indeed I suspect any such tool, which would look like the old fashioned school room paper cutter, would tend to distort the plastic just as a paper cutter does a great job cutting one sheet but a poor job cutting a ream of paper to identical length.
That is not to say that a Chopper is not a useful tool and I would urge anyone who is kitbashing or scratchbuilding to get one. As with knives, it benefits from keeping the blade (in this case a single edge razor) fresh.
As to the Dremel tool idea, not only is it hard to control to cut to a perfect line, but it tends to melt the plastic.
What you need is a tool that enables you to take advantage of the really wonderful quality of styrene, the cut and snap feature. That is a good deep cut enables you to just snap the pieces apart with minimal filing or sanding to clean up the edges. So some sort of Square is needed – perhaps a T Square, Combination Square, or small rafter square or (my fav) a Try Square. Get a size to fit model railroad projects – ordinary woodworking shop squares are likely way too big. “The Tool Man” who shows up at many train shows has just the kind of squares I am talking about.
If you can hunt down a copy, the late Art Curren’s wonderful book for Kalmbach on kitbashing has tons of advice and techniques for what you propose to do. One of his favorite structures to bash was the Mt Vernon Mfg Co kit, still around and available from LifeLike/Walthers. At Art’s estate sale there were bags of Mr Vernon Mfg parts of walls for sale – a good reminder than when bashing the goal is to save the “scrap” parts
That’s a very handy tool (I have the NWSL version), but it is for cutting stripwood.
Assuming your talking about plastic strucres … Before assembly of the structure, determine the exact locations for cuts on roofs, sides, etc. of the structure. Use a metal straigtedge to guide a sharp blade, making multiple light cuts. Don’t need to cut completely through as the parts can be “snapped” apart. A little experimentation will teach you when you can snap. Finish off the cut with a file so the surfaces are smooth and square.
Used the above method to kitbash this structure:
I use marks technique but I use the back side of the blade point. It will follow the straight edge better. The sharp side wants to make its own path.
Bill