The General Kaiju Model Kit Thread

[Executive Hamster]

Good luck. I built the Aurora kit and let me just say that it was not a fun experience. Thank god they eventually moved to kits that snap together because gluing these was a nightmare.

[canofhumdingers]

Eh, sounds like you just needed better advice, technique, or tools. Old kits definitely don’t fit the best and require more gap and seam filling, but gluing them together shouldn’t be hard. Using a proper plastic cement vs regular superglue is a must. And preferably the kind you brush on to the seems for most jobs. You can also get plastic cement that comes out of a precision applicator needle for certain needs where the brush won’t work.

[Executive Hamster]

I used superglue cause I aint got any of that other stuff. Very painful. Like actual, physical "rip your skin off" pain. The plastic is just soooo thing and hard to stick.

[pjkong]

So where do you all get your model kits from? I have a hard time finding any.

[canofhumdingers]

Local hobby shops and even hobby lobby sometimes has good kits (they carry Bandai kits now which are usually fantastic). But for kaiju kits online places are usually your best bet. But be careful buying on eBay because there are lots of recasts which are usually much lower quality than the real kits they’re copies of.

Added in 4 minutes 58 seconds:

I used superglue cause I aint got any of that other stuff. Very painful. Like actual, physical "rip your skin off" pain. The plastic is just soooo thing and hard to stick.

Well, like I said, there’s other cements far better suited for the job than super glue. Local hobby shops or (like above) even hobby lobby these days should have a decent assortment of choices.

If you need to order online MegaHobby.com has basically everything you could ever need. There’s also tons of informational videos on YouTube that can give you all sorts of ideas and tips.

Oh, and if you ever do get your fingers stuck again with superglue, acetone (fingernail polish remover) will dissolve it without ripping your skin apart.

[InfiniteHollywood]

I've gotten to where I enjoy snap kits in recent years, mostly Gundams. Actually mostly SD Gundams, but I did build a few of those snap together SD Godzilla kits a couple years back. Those were fun. Traditional kits and vinyl or plaster recast kits are a horse of another color. I've done a few but they're not really for me. You have to really spend a lot of time on those.

One thing I've learned is patience. I think sometimes people come into model making thinking it's going to be some thing they're going to get done in an hour or so. Most of these builds takes hours, if not days or weeks depending on how detailed you're getting and how much you're trying to accomplish. So I would say before you start any builds, make sure you have time to work on them and have a dedicated spot that you can work on them. Some place where you can stop, come back to later, etc, without necessarily having to clean up. It makes the experience more enjoyable.

[canofhumdingers]

For sure. A dedicated workbench and the patience to spent the required time are two of the most important tools needed to have a good model building experience. Most kits I’ve built have taken months or even occasionally years to finish. But a big part of that is lack of time to dedicate to them. If I were able to model even 2-3 hours per session at least twice a week I’d finish most kits within a couple months probably.

Speaking of finishing, I just finished these little rocket launchers. They’re technically gashapon so I’ve posted more about them in that thread, but I figured mentioning them in the model thread was fitting too.

[UltramanGoji]

Very impressive! Especially for such tiny models.

[InfiniteHollywood]

Nice work for sure. I have some of those and I can't even imagine painting them. Very good details.

[Mr. Yellow]

Should’ve started this thread when I was looking at the B Movie model kits on Monsters in Motions.

[canofhumdingers]

Picked up this resin kit by Image from House of Monsters. Can’t wait to build it! It’ll be my first try at resin.

[Platypus Prime]

BBTS has three very simple kits by the same Moderoid line that did The Big O I had in the other threads. They're really simplistic, just three pieces of a ring made of three parts each, as Wind, Flame, and Waves effect parts. Maybe not Kaiju themselves, but they might be of interest. These are them just cut right off the sprues and put together, no paint, polishing, or glue. I'm very happy with them!

[canofhumdingers]

I got to attend JerseyFest yesterday. I’ve been wanting to go to this for years and it was really neat. I tried to whittle this down to just Kaiju models and only a select handful of photos but it’s still gonna be a big photo dump, so apologies for the bandwidth. But there was some amazing work on display from some really talented modelers and it needs to be seen. Hope y’all enjoy them as much as I did.

[DirektorSplennic]

That Ghidorah diorama is so sick! The attention to detail is amazing, and seeing the Showa designs in far more violent and bloody scenarios is surreal. Gorosaurus with his heart leaking out surrounded by a bunch of splattered and panicked civilians is crazy.

[canofhumdingers]

That Ghidorah diorama is so sick! The attention to detail is amazing, and seeing the Showa designs in far more violent and bloody scenarios is surreal. Gorosaurus with his heart leaking out surrounded by a bunch of splattered and panicked civilians is crazy.

It was really something to behold. I got to attend a presentation by the guys who built it that was really neat and informative. It was two friends working on and off for about 3 years to build it. Most of the kaiju are 20cm Destroy All Monsters resin kits by Image. Baragon is the revoltech figure (highly modded) and Ghidorah is some huge (40cm I think?) resin kit.

The kaiju are destroying the Crowne Plaza in Louisville, KY where WonderfestUSA is held. The basic story of the scene is Frankenstein is coming to Wonderfest with a Destroy All Monsters Diorama he’s built. Gaira shows up with a remote control cyborg Ghidorah the Kilaaks helped him build to destroy the place. Sanda is trying to stop Gaira which causes Ghidorah to malfunction and spill the green ooze. Frankie trips and spills his DAM diorama into the ooze which immediately makes his model kaiju come to life and grow to enormous size. Of course all the monsters immediately start fighting and mayhem ensues.

There’s tons of Easter eggs, including the fact that most of the tiny people are fellow model building friends who all attend Wonderfest each year. You might notice Baragon is just beginning to grow, with a few parts of him (hand, ear, tail) larger than the rest. You might also notice the Ghidorah model on Frankie’s diorama that has yet to hit the ooze.

The laser is actually laser filament, basically a laser pointer shining through fishing line. It looked even MORE real in person, if that’s possible. Was a really incredible effect.

Anyway, here’s another image dump of it with some more angles and details.

[canofhumdingers]

At my request my brother printed these M48 Patton tanks at 1/200 scale on his resin printer to go with my GTTHM display. They aren’t an exact match for the JSDF Type 61 tanks seen in some of the 60’s Showa films, but they were the closest thing I could find a decent quality printable file of for free. And I think they do quite nicely.

Anyway, I painted them up over the last few weeks and am very happy with how they came out. I really need a 3D resin printer!

[shadowgigan]

Speaking of finishing, I just finished these little rocket launchers. They’re technically gashapon so I’ve posted more about them in that thread, but I figured mentioning them in the model thread was fitting too.

I'm going to have to look into getting some of these.

Added in 30 seconds:

At my request my brother printed these M48 Patton tanks at 1/200 scale on his resin printer to go with my GTTHM display. They aren’t an exact match for the JSDF Type 61 tanks seen in some of the 60’s Showa films, but they were the closest thing I could find a decent quality printable file of for free. And I think they do quite nicely.

Anyway, I painted them up over the last few weeks and am very happy with how they came out. I really need a 3D resin printer!

REally nice paint jobs, especially for such a tiny subject!

[shadowgigan]

Just got the X Plus Sakai 84 kit.

[canofhumdingers]

And so it begins…