Kitbashing assembled buildings

[gr8tfuldead]

Has anyone ever kitbashed a building by sacrificing already assembled builings? Generally, I'd be using unbuilt kits, but I have some assembled buildings that I bought that I'd like to improve. I'm wondering what would be the best way to separate glued pieces without them breaking apart?

[keiman]

Need to know what they are made of, A good surgical scalpel will usually work but you need to be very careful, I've cut off a finger tip and a trip to A&E soon makes you be very careful.

[CaptOblivious]

If they were assemmbled with cyanoacrylate (super glue), you can buy stuff that dissolves it. If they are styrene kits and assembled with plastic cement-which basically welds the arts together- only a scalpel will do.

[quinntopia]

gr8tfuldead  -  I am increasingly buying old kits off of eBay and ripping them apart, merging them with something else, or adding lights / details.  For the most part, you can pull, twist and bend without anything breaking (generally, old Kibri, Faller, and Vollmer kits).  For really solid joints, a sharp xacto knife may be necessary.  The ease of doing this, and the amount of parts that get damaged, is always going to depend on how well it was built in the first place, and what type of glue was used. 

 

I generally start by trying to take off some of the most obvious pieces first.  If they come off easily, you can generally expect the rest of the structure to do the same.  If they're stubborn, well, you might want to rethink your plan!

[Scaper]

Like Jerry I'm always ripping apart old buildings and rebuilding them. Sometimes it's easier to buy new kits if they are easily available. However if you are looking at ripping apart old structures you do have to use brute force at times.

 

I'm currently working on this building. Old kits that are hard to find. I found 4 original unbuilt kits, and 5 built models.

 

 

I then pulled, used pencil razors, twisting, pulling like mad, prying, cutting some more with the razor, and managed to get all the parts apart on the old kits.

 

 

No broken parts. I then did the same to the balconies to get the old plant pots off them and then painted them.

 

144 balconies painted and now they look like new... I'm waiting on some other parts for this building to finish it.

 

 

It's fun to do but it can be a lot of work

[Scaper]

Here's another example. This was a kitbash I did about 12 years ago. I loved it originally but became more and more displeased with it.

 

 

I then found a built kit on ebay and started to rip it apart too...

 

after removing the glass I started cutting up parts..

 

reinforced parts with thick styrene...

 

added some custom details,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and this is how the over all building turned out..

 

 

 

 

In my opinion it looks way better than my first attempt. :D

 

 

 

Most importantly I'm happy with it.

 

 

 

I posted this to show you what you can do with old built buildings. It's just a bit of work that's all.

 

 

 

Good luck on your kitbash!!!  -Bob-

[Mudkip Orange]

HOLY COW MAN. That is some SERIOUS kitbashing.

[gr8tfuldead]

That's pretty much what I have in mind, except minus the talent. We'll see what I come up with. Any ideas about removing glue stains? Based on the age of the models I have to work with, I'd say they were styrene with regular styrene glue used to assemble them. Thanks for the info!

[quinntopia]

Any ideas about removing glue stains?

 

That gets pretty hard.  I generally repaint all my old buildings that I rebuild.  Usually because they're still in the 'stock' colors and look too plasticky without a nice coat of flat spay paint to tone it down a bit.    I carefully sand down the buildings where there's unsightly glue spots and then paint away!

 

This is my most recent one...the top photo is how it looked when it arrived from eBay:

This is how it looked 'after'

[Scaper]

That's such an awesome building!

 

I agree with Jerry, even that kibri building I photographed up above had a lot of styrene stains on it. I did a light sand on the stain areas and did a white paint job on it. Covered the stains and now you can't even see them. I also sometimes mask off areas that are a different colour too.

 

Cheers, Bob

[Mudkip Orange]

Got a  night shot?

[quinntopia]

Sure do!  Here's the "Shakey's" side:

 

And here's the 'hobby shop' (should look familiar....?  )

[Bernard]

Quinn - I'm glad Mudkip asked for a night photo, it's even more impressive showing off all the details of the scene inside the store.

[quinntopia]

Thanks Bernard! 

 

A lot of us like to find little things we can put on our layout that make it fun for the occassional viewer, I put way too much time thinking about the inside of the building!

[Mudkip Orange]

And here's the 'hobby shop' (should look familiar....?  )

 

LOL

[Scaper]

That looks killer!!! So awesome.