Gigantis, the Fire Monster
Inhumanly Possible Creations hits the model scene with a really cool kit--Gigantis, the Fire Monster. It is a great opportunity to practice a tried and true technique--drybrushing.
I guess you are always excited to get a new kit in the mail, but when I got Inhumanly Possible Creations' new Gigantis, sculpted by Chris Elizardo, I had a big old smile on my face. You can read a full review here, but let me say that the kit is going to please collectors who love the Aurora "Monsters of the Movies" kits, as well as people who want something manageable to do in a weekend and easy to find room for on a shelf. It combines all the recognizable features of several Godzillas and puts them into one nicely sculpted, tightly designed kit.
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The kit requires very little clean up--a few minutes with a hobby knife around the edges and maybe a little sandpaper on the toes and fingernails. I chose to assemble Godzilla . . . er, Gigantis . . . without the mouth attached or the fins in place in the first stages of the build. There is no real weight on the limbs (the kit is small and light), so there is no reason for pins. I just used some three minute epoxy to hold the parts in place.
The next stage is to fill the gaps, which are small. However, I like to kind of bridge the gaps with a two part putty--in this case, Apoxy Sculpt. To hide the seams I need to make a latex stamp, which I do using Repliscale by Alchemy Works (right). The two parts are blended and spread on a representative skin detail to capture the pattern (below left). Just peel the green stamp off and press it into the lines of putty at the seams for a disguised join (below right).
After a coat of Kilz gray primer on all the pieces, I put on a coat of Badger Near Black, a dense gray color, as a base coat for Godzilla. My experiments with the airbrush made it clear that the humidity was going to be a real problem. I decided, therefore, to rely on a tried and true technique of drybrushing.
If you are new to the hobby, dry brushing is a process of applying paint to the upper details of a kit without changing the undercoats. You put a small amount of paint on a clean, flat brush and pull as much off as desired (normally most of it) with a clean cloth. Then, in short, rapid strokes you stroke the brush over the surface . . . leaving small amounts of paint on the upper details. It brings out highlights and can be applied in various levels of intensity by increasing or decreasing amounts of paint and/or the degree of contact with the brush.
In the picture above right, you can see that I sprayed on a coat of Body Bag Black on the kit base. Since I expect to drybrush the whole thing at this point forward, I want the recesses to carry shadows and the Black will accomplish this. I hand painted the title plaque just to get a feel for the way it would look in the end, and hand painted a base coat of Americana Honey Wheat on Godzilla's toes and nails, Americana Light Buttermilk on his teeth and eyes, and Badger Rose Flesh followed by drybrushed Createx Transparent Flesh on the tongue and roof of the mouth. When this was dry, I sealed the kit with Testor's Dullcote to protect the work I had done.
Next, the drybrushing began in earnest. Using an acrylic craft paint by Apple Barrel called Dolphin Gray, I briskly drybrushed the surface of Gigantis. The picture to the right shows the fins in place, but I dry brushed them too with the same color, only in a much heavier application to make the fins appear almost white at the edges. When they were dry (almost immediately), I secured them with CA glue and felt no real need to add putty at the seams since the fit was so tight.
You'll also notice that I attached the jaw. It did require a little putty in the gap, but the putty took the hand painted coats of Near Black and Dolphin Gray quite well.
Next, I went to work drybrushing the very detailed base that comes with the kit. All the windows of the standing buildings got an energetic coat of Dolphin Gray. This not only gives the kit a subtle sense of continuity, but also, it will simulate glass reasonably well. I painted in the streets with Badger's Weathered Black and Mossy Moor Brown, and rubble area with FW ink, Antelope Brown and then drybrushed Apple Barrel Sandstone here and there (right) and started experimenting with building colors.
The building in the back of the diorama base is painted with a favorite color of mine, Badger's Deep Wound Maroon. The building to the left was painted Apple Barrel Hunter Green, the fallen wall in the right foreground, Badger Coward's Yellow. In the foreground, right hand side, the building is Apple Barrel Antique Gold as are some of the collapsed pieces on the base. The crumbled walls behind this are Folk Art Hauser Green Light and the tall building is Gargoyle Gray in the base coat (right).
The tall building is given a further treatment of Apple Barrel Pewter Gray, which is wiped off randomly to give the impression of stress and debris.
Okay . . . so are there really a lot of buildings in Tokyo or Osaka that are painted Deep Wound Maroon and Coward's Yellow? I doubt it, but the whole time I was doing the kit, I was aware that there were few opportunities for color to offset all the gray. In fact, as you can see in the final picture of the base below, toned the whole thing down with one final drybrush of Dolphin Gray to add realism--after all, dust would be everywhere.
When these steps were done, I gave the whole kit--Godzilla and base--a very light coating of Createx Transparent Gray with my airbrush to blend the colors together a little and add some depth back to the recesses.
In the picture to the right, you can see a small dot of red. This is a bit of paint on a small sponge that has been inserted into the hole that I had in the foot to hold him in place while painting. Before the paint dries, I place Godzilla carefully where I want him on the base and this leaves a small red blotch. I can now drill a hole in this spot and insert a screw to secure this fire monster.
This kit is almost done at this point. I hand brush a couple coats of Future Floor Wax mixed with a drop of Rotten Tooth Tan on the nails and gloss the teeth a little. I printed off a tiny "Asahi" beer sign for the green building and put it on with a little rubber cement and a hobby knife. The edges of the title plaque are painted red and Godzilla's eyes--a classic black dot, ala the original films--finishes out the kit.
This is a cool little kit and comes highly recommended. I did the whole thing in less than 24 hours, so it makes a great weekend project to work on while you are enjoying the new DVD release of Gigantis this October. Contact Kevin at Inhumanly Possible Creations to get yours.
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