Polar Lights 16 inch Godzilla/Gojira

I picked up the 16 inch Polar Light Godzilla kit some years when Hobby Lobby had it mismarked for 7$ (I think they thought it was the tiny repop of small original godzilla kit). I couldn’t pass that up. It sat in my stash until I saw the 2014 Godzilla last month and I had a urgin’ to do it.

All Godzilla films are fun and I like them. But seriously, the only truly great Godzilla *film* is the dark, serious Japanese language 1954 original, non Raymond Burr version, GOJIRA. If you have not seen the original, non-dubbed 1954 Japanese version, do yourself a favor and watch it. It’s a great film and one that would never be made today.

The Godzilla suits have (until the 2000s I believe) always been black and charcoal – not green -- and I wanted the original suit look, especially the black look of the original BW 1954 version. So black and charcoal it will be.

I forgot to take a pic of the original parts, but here is one I copied from the web. Mods, delete if theres a problem. The kit itself it pretty straightforward -- large pieces, easy to assemble. There's a full diorama, I'll see about that last of all.



Two warnings, though: One: Don’t detach the 25 or so back plates until you are attaching each one. Each one fits like a puzzle piece, by number. Two: LOTS OF PUTTY. Can’t be helped, I suppose, when the entire figure is rough textured with huge parts -- which means huge, non matching ugly seams. I oozed on the green putty, then used my dremel to drill out the “channels” between the long linear "lumps" on the skin.



The Godzilla costume’s skin isn’t scales or anything else. It was lots of latex rubber strips glued to a rubber suit. It was supposed to be rough and irregular – like the horrible radiation scarring from Hiroshima et al.

After about 5 sessions of puttying, sanding, dremeling and puttying, sanding, dremeling etc the model it pretty much prepped. Now the base coat -- solid flat black.



BTW the pics make the model look lighter than it actually is.

I used an entire bottle of tamiya flat black and then some. The model had a appetite for paint worthy of the Big-G himself!



I used an entire bottle of tamiya flat black and then some. Again, the pics make it lighter than it actually is. The model had a appetite for paint worthy of the Big-G himself! The crinkly texture took a lot of passes to completely cover. I also shot the inside jaws white for both the teeth and to prep it so the various red (mouth) shades would pop.



I then spent three sessions airbrushing several lighter shades of grey to highlight the "crinkly" skin textures as well as raised parts of the face, elbows, knees, etc.



LOL I had to take this shot.

Now, the back plates:



I did 3 passes to build up the "ghostly" white on the back plates' tips. I also gently shot some white on the skin texture to make the raised edges pop a bit more.

Next stop: Down the throat!

Looking good....I have this kit and never got around to building it.

HilbillyBaloney said:

Looking good....I have this kit and never got around to building it.

Click to expand...

Be prepared to use an entire tube of green squadron putty to cover the huge leg/arm etc seams. I plastered it on thick, then used my dremel tool (with the circular cutter bit) to cut long parallel "trenches" to mask the seams and match the crinkles in the skin. Worked well, but was a lot of work. Beautiful kit, otherwise, and a great size.

cool, thanx for the tip.

Painted the mouth several shades of dark red and red brown then some black around the outer lips.



Also a little more highlighting for the knees and outer joints .



Next step: EYES which is the one step I'm dreading.

Eyes are done. I couldn't really find a nice close up eye pic from the original suit, and decided to use one the 90s costumes eyes as a source. Also, the 60s costume eyes were never detailed or even convincing, and (to me) always looked a little too Muppet-ish.

I based them on this pic from one the very last godzilla movies


i used a desert yellow iris with a a dark brown outline/rays, and a slight red tinge wash for the eye corners/vessels.


I then dabbed a little gloss clear coat onto the eyes for a liquid look.

Next step, Dullcote over the entire model, then shooting a little gloss clear coat on the dorsal plates and face to bring out details from the flat finish.