Godzilla's Last Stand?

"Hobby Dude," Bilal El Amin, takes on Image Models rendition of Godzilla from Final Wars.  Here's how he built Japan's latest urban renovator.

For this article I’m building Godzilla from the movie: GODZILLA:  FINAL WARS.  In the movie, Godzilla is called on the save mankind once again from an alien threat.  He faces revamped versions of many of his past foes leading up to a final war with a new alien kaiju called Monster X.  As a Godzilla movie fan, it’s hard to grade this flick as it had many good points but I think it was a little disappointing especially since this is supposed to be the last Godzilla movie for the foreseeable future.  However, as kaiju modeler, I’m grateful that it has inspired another round of cool kits. 

This particular kit is produced by a Japanese outfit called Image.  Image makes excellent model kits that require very little prep work and are quite detailed.  It comes in 35 excellently cast pieces including the base (right).  I really like that Image goes the extra mile and provides a base for most of their kits.  Kaiju kits always look better on a base that reminds you of a scene from the movie or puts the character in context.  In this case, Godzilla is standing on the severed head of a defeated Kaiser Ghidorah.

As with all Image kits, the clean up was minimal. I scraped off a few faint mold lines with the back of my hobby knife and I sanded the edges of his fins with some fine grit sandpaper. There also were a few pour spouts that I had to remove with my Dremel tool.

Assembly:

Assembling this kit is pretty straightforward.  All of the parts are keyed so there’s no guesswork in fitting the parts together.  Because of the key and socket design, you really don’t need to pin the parts but the engineer in me says differently.  I drilled and pinned everything using coat hanger wire and sections of paper clips for smaller pieces (below left).  Everything is glued together with 2-part epoxy glue for added strength (below right).  Nope, my kit is not gonna fall apart on the way to some model show.

Seaming and priming:

Getting rid of the seams was a snap. I used a product called Modeling Paste by Liquitex.  It can be found in most art supply stores. It’s basically acrylic polymer thickened up with marble dust (right).  I worked it into the cracks with a stiff bristle paintbrush and then sort of stippled it around the seams to blend it in.  Some areas required a second application, which was no big deal because this stuff dries pretty quickly. Once dry it’s very hard. 

After I was satisfied with the seams, I washed all the pieces in warm soapy water and primed everything using gray Plasti-kote sandable primer (right).  Most of the time, it’s best to paint Godzilla kits in subassemblies.  In this case, I attached everything except the left and right outer row of fins, his lower jaw, teeth and tongue.  Doing this makes it so much easer to paint – especially if you are using an airbrush.  I assembled all of the Kaiser Ghidorah parts except for the lower jaw and tongue.

What color is Godzilla?

There’s an ongoing debate as to what color Godzilla is. The layperson would probably say that Godzilla is green. In fact, in the majority of the Godzilla films, the G suits are various shades of gray. It wasn’t until the movie Godzilla vs Megagirius that Toho decided to give him a very dark green hide. I think most Godzilla fans will tell you that they dislike how the mainstream media depicts Godzilla as a big green lizard.

Now as far as modeling is concerned, I think it’s pretty boring to paint Godzilla a flat gray.  I try to incorporate all of the external elements that can affect the basic gray suit in the movie such as lighting, deep shadows created from the creases and texture of his skin dust.  Ultimately, when it’s your model you can paint it whatever color you like. I’m going to try to stay close to what he looks like in the movie. For this, I use the DVD and a great book called Godzilla Final Wars published by Shogakukan as reference.

For this project, I’m starting with the darkest shade and progressing to lighter shades.  For the basecoat, I mixed up a dark blue-gray color using Golden’s Carbon Black, Payne’s Grey (a sort of blue-black color) and Model Master’s Euro Gray. I used my airbrush to cover all of the skin areas and also lightly feathered the color on the inside of the fins. (Figure 5 and 5a)

Next, I mixed up some of the base color with more of the Euro Grey and a touch of white to lighten it up a bit. I airbrushed this color on all the high parts. This left deep shadows in the creases between the muscle groups and tail sections.  Once again, I lighten my base color with more Euro Grey and white. This time I dry brushed this color all over the model including the fins. This is my favorite part of the process because you can really see the sculpted textures and details start to pop!

I continue the dry brush process a few more rounds adding more gray and white each time as I build up lighter highlights around his ears, eyebrows, claws and fins. When I’m done, the dry brushing is a little too exaggerated. I knock this down by mixing up a very watered down wash of my original base color and spraying it on the model holding my airbrush about a foot away. (Figure 6, 7 and 7a)

Claws:

I wanted the claws to have a gradual color change from dark at the base to light at the tip. To accomplish this, I dry brushed a little more of the gray on the tips of each claw. Now we have the dark gray color at the base fading out the gray color at the tips. Next, I carefully airbrush a clear caramel color over each claw and finish up by applying Future floor wax which is a inexpensive alternative to gloss hobby paint.

Mouth, teeth and tongue:

Now I move on to the mouth area. Along with the eyes, this area is very import if you want to have a convening model. I airbrush a mixture of Testor’s flat tan and Golden’s white to get an off white tooth color. Once that is dry I seal it with several coats of Testor’s DullCoat. Now I mix up a batch of pink eye burgundy, FW Flesh tent ink and white to make a fleshy gum color to paint the inner mouth and gums. I don’t worry about being to thorough around the teeth because I’ll follow up with a thin wash of the same gum color which I let flow into the areas between the teeth. This wash also gives the bottom of the teeth a slight tent which makes a natural transition between gum and teeth. I lighten the gum color up with some more white and dry brush the raised areas in the mouth. The final step is to create a wash of the base color and FW Sepia transparent ink. I take my detail brush and carefully apply it along the base of the teeth and into the crevasses of the mouth. The same process is used for Kaiser Ghidorah’s mouth.

For Godzilla and Kaiser Ghidorah’s tongues I add a little more gray to the mouth base color. This provides a bit more contrast to allow the tongue to stand out in the mouth. After that, I follow with dry brushing with a lighter shade of the base color and then a wash with a mix of the base coat and FW Sepia ink.

Once I am happy with Godzilla’s teeth, tongue and lower jaw, I glue them in place. I finish up by puttying the jaw line and painting it to match Godzilla hide.  Everything is covered with several coats of Future floor wax until I build up a realistic wet look.

Godzilla’s Eyes:

Godzilla eyes started out with a base coat of off white. I sealed this base coat with several layers of Testor’s dull coat. This is because I know there’s going to be a lot of trial and error to follow so I want to protect this first coat. Next I give the eye a very thin wash of Golden’s Hansa Yellow.  This gives the eye a slight yellow tent. Then I gave it a wash of Freak Flex pink eye burgundy and let it settle around the edge and corners of the eye. Once that is dry, I apply a wash of FW Sepia ink and Golden transparent airbrush extender. The airbrush extender is like clear semi-gloss paint with no pigment. With this mix I get a little more control as I work the paint around the eye. I want the clear sepia to settle around the edges and fade into the middle but not totally obscure the pink layer underneath. I protect my work with DullCoat before I move on to the iris and pupil.

For eyes this small, the toothpick method works best for me. First I take a fine tip pencil and draw the iris where I think I want it. I look at the model from different angles. I’ll make adjustments by erasing and redrawing the iris until I am happy with the location. Then I take a toothpick and trim off the end until I get a blunt tip that is about the size of the iris that I want. Then I mix up the paint color for the outer edge of the iris on a flat surface. In this case, it’s going to be a dark gray. Next I dip the toothpick in gray paint and dab it on top of my pencil iris. The result is a nice little round dot of gray paint.

When that is dry, I take a slightly smaller blunted toothpick and dip it in the paint I’m using for the iris color – Testor’s Gold. Being really careful, I dab it into the center of the gray dot. This creates a gold iris with a gray outer edge. Next I create the pupil by dipping an even smaller blunted edge toothpick into black paint and dabbing it into the very center of the iris. I finish this off with three or four coats of Future floor wax. Voila! I have a set of angry Godzilla eyes. It takes some practice but I think the toothpick method is a lot easier than trying to use a paintbrush.

Kaiser Ghidorah:

I give Kaiser Ghidorah a base coat of flat black. Then dry brush with Model Master Gold, which has a copper tint to it. I used my airbrush to hit all the high spots with Pactra Pearl Gold and then followed up with a wash of FW Sepia ink. Next, I used my airbrush to give KG a thin misting of Testor Gold, which tied all the gold tones together. I detailed the teeth by dry brushing the Pactra Pearl Gold along the top of each tooth. Once this was done, I glued his lower jaw to his head and attached his tongue. The seam along the jaw line was puttied and painted to match the rest of the head. The gory section where KG’s neck was severed was painted much the same way the mouth was. 

Kaiser Ghidorah’s eyes were done in four steps:

1. Base coat the eyes with Model Master Aluminum.

2. Go over the base coat with clear red from Tamiya. The clear red over the Aluminum gives the eyes a glowing look.

3. Take some thinned down clear black and wash it over the eye. Let it pool at the base. This gives a gradual transition from the red of the eye and blends it into the eye socket and surrounding gold.

4. Finish up with several coats of clear Future floor wax.

Base:

I airbrushed transparent black in all of the crevasses in the rocks and shaded along the curves of the base. Next I airbrushed various shades of gray and tan in random patterns around the rubble and earth. I followed up by dry brushing light gray all over to bring out the texture of the rubble. The base was sealed with a couple coats of Testor’s dullcoat.

Final assembly:

The parts of Kaiser Ghidorah’s severed head was glued to the base and Godzilla was positioned on the on the base to complete the model. This was a very fun kit to build and paint. I think the Kaiser Ghidorah head allows for a nice contrast with Godzilla’s gray hide and adds interest without overpowering the focus of the model, which is of course Godzilla!

© CreatureScape 2006

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