DJ Landry’s Godzilla’s Go-Cart

This is my Godzilla Go-cart from Polar Lights, I came across the kit on ebay and started working on it within hours of receiving it.

I did this a bit backwards as i did most of the painting ahead of assembly. I started by giving everything a coat of Krylon auto primer then i gave it a coat of Krylon gloss, I gave it about an hour between coats then set it aside for the night.

Next I started dry brushing the body with my own mix of charcoal grey, I use Benjamin Moore paint pods, if anyone is interested in good latex paints at reasonable prices you should check these out. They’re paint samples in 2oz. jars meant to be used for testing colors, much easier to take a trip to your local hardware store than to wait for mail order paints and no shipping charges! getting the seams filled wasn’t a problem as i just used the dry brushing to cover them. The grey over black gave him a nice textured look which i like, the two versions I’ve seen of this model had Godzilla painted green, I went for the traditional look. I also changed up the colors on the carts body, I used Krylon silver on the frame then hand painted the wheels, brake pad, steering wheel, seat and motor. As you can see in the pics the motor was chrome, after painting it flat black I chipped away the primer to give a worn look, I also used a personal trick i learned in my teens. When working with flat paints you can get a weathered look simply by rubbing certain areas with your fingers, the bodies natural oils get into the paint and discolor it. the darker areas are where I did this. Unfortunately my ‘puter ate the pics of the cart as i was working on it but the finished pics show that there really wasn’t much to it. Most of the detail work was on Godzilla himself.

You’ll notice that i did the dead fish in two tone green over blue… I’m an avid fisherman so i went for a large mouth bass look. The only real problems i had were the goggles and helmet, neither lined up the way the box art or instructions showed, I solved this by puttying the goggles hole and drilling my own. The helmet i repositioned and glued a piece of sprue in the center then drilled a hole for the sprue and glued in place. An easy kit to work with and a lot of fun for someone thats been out of the game for almost 24 years. I hope my tips can help fellow modelers, You can find the paint pods at most hardware stores that sell Benjamin Moore paints. Ace hardware also has they’re own version which are just as good and they have a different variety of colors between the two brands.

You may have noticed the big green leg and tail lurking in the background in the last pics, this is the Polar Lights Godzilla diorama, I just started it and will send pics soon.

DJ Landry