un-gluing the glued

[chateauricher]

I recently purchased a 2nd hand (used) and assembled plastic 4-bay roundhouse with a matching 2-bay segment. I would like to put the 2 segments together to have a 6-bay roundhouse. any suggestions on how I can unglue one end wall in order to attach the 2 segments together? I'd like to minimise any damage. btw, this is in n-scale. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

[SteelMonsters]

If you can get at it with a pair of Xuron cutters, cut along the seam with the flat side towards the side you want to keep. That would probably be the easiest way to remove the wall. This is assuming that the wall your taking out is ok to damage. If not, take an exacto knife and take 500 passes on the joint from the inside if possible.

If ACC glue was used, Acetone might be able to dissolve the glue if it doesn't damage the plastic.

[orsonroy]

If the kit was assembled with superglue, use acetone to weaken the bond, and then snap the kit apart. You'll spend a fair amoutn of time cleaning up the parts afterwards (soap and bru***o remove the acetone, sandpaper and lots of elbow grease to remove the superglue residue so you can use plastic solvent cement to rebuild the kit).

If the kit was built with plastic solvent cement, you'll have to use a Xona saw or other small jeweler's file. Use scrap wood to brace the inside of the building while you cut, and try to keep your cuts as straight as possible. Use 100 grit sandpaper and a square to smooth out the cuts and to make sure that they're square.

It's a lot of work, and not always worth it. It might be simpler and easier to add the roundhouse extension to one end of the existing house, and scratchbuilt a new end wall, using one of the existing ones as a pattern (real roundhouses often had brick fire walls built into them, so this conversion won't look strange)