Yesterday, I took the dremel to the porcelain. It was slow going, and quite loud. I used a diamond-tip bur for the dremel. I varied between a round end and a cone-shaped bur. The round end to gouge into the porcelain, and the cone to widen the hole. I ruined the round bur completely by the end of it - burned off all the diamond bits so its just smooth metal now. The bur creates a lot of heat - you will quickly see the porcelain turn red where you put pressure on the bur. I found that by getting an eye dropper and dripping water onto the site, it helped clear debris, and it kept things a bit cooler which I think helped it cut a bit faster. It still took forever though. I punctured through the porcelain in a few sites, then mostly scored out where I wanted to break, and it ended up pretty clean.
After gouging the wreath out of the front window, I had an epiphany. Pliers! Using some hefty needle-nose pliers, I was able to break out the other windows that had little holes in them for the light. Basically grip the thin bit of porcelain between two holes with the pliers, and then rock the pliers back and forth to make the little teeth grind along the porcelain. After a few tries, the porcelain chips and breaks away (always wear safety goggles!)
After cracking open the windows, I glued the big pieces back together, added some balsa floorboards to help reinforce them, and then I did a quick wash using diluted future floor polish (hence the shine) and black/brown paint - just to bring out some of the details and darken the mood a bit.
I think its starting to look a lot better!
Next up, I think I will attempte to gouge out the front door, then it will be on to the interior detailing.
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