New Combat Garden Gnomes Ready to Deploy

What makes the grass grow?  Blood, blood, blood!

For the first time in quite a while, I've actually had the time to sit down and focus on sculpting for a minute.  The result, a new variant of Combat Garden Gnome.  This version is charging headlong into battle with his bayonet fixed:




As with all of my Combat Garden gnomes, the original was hand-sculpted by me in oil-based clay and then molded to reproduce him in urethane resin.  I'm especially proud of his angry little face:


Once the first cast was out of the mold, it was painted with high-gloss exterior paints and deployed in my mother's garden.  There he will stay, facing all-comers in the endless battle for lawn dominance:


Meanwhile, work continues on the rest of the castings:


If you'd like one for your very own, you can order them here: LINK

If you're feeling artistic and want to paint one yourself, you can order the unpainted version here: LINK

I've got a couple more sketches in the pipeline, so stay tuned for more Combat Garden Gnomes.

.

Combat Garden Gnomes: Gearing Up for the Holidays

I've been having fun making up meme posters for my Combat Garden Gnomes. Here's one:


If you're interested in getting some Combat Garden Gnomes of your own, you can order them at http://thorssoli.etsy.com



If you are planning on having them in hand in time for the holidays, you're running out of time to place your order!


For more (better) meme posters read on...

Time to Sculpt a New Combat Garden Gnome

It's been a while since I added a new pose to my series of Combat Garden Gnomes. I've carved out a bit of time in this month's schedule and I'd like to know what version you'd like to see next.

Here are your options:

I'm partial to the "bayonet charge" guy myself, but I'd like to hear your feedback. Be sure to add your vote and, if you've got a better pose in mind, add your suggestions in the comments. 

If you'd like to see the rest of the troops and pick up a squad of gnomes to defend your own garden, you can see them in my Etsy shop at http://thorssoli.etsy.com.

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for updates...

Prone Gnomes are Back in Stock

Don't delay! 

Get yours at http://thorssoli.etsy.com!

Special Announcement from the Gnome Rifle Association

 

Get your Combat Garden Gnomes at http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli! 

Enter the coupon code "BLOGGER" at checkout and get 10% off your entire order.


.

Combat Garden Gnome Radioman is Ready to Ship Out!

Somewhere in the wilds of a suburban garden plot right now there's a platoon of garden gnomes pinned down by suppressing fire from a hedgerow.  In the past they'd have to hunker down and wait until the opposing forces ran out of ammo or hope some friendly unit happened to be within yelling distance. 

That was before they enlisted the help of the Combat Garden Gnome Radioman:


At first glance he's mostly harmless. He doesn't even have a weapon, just the comically oversized A/N PRC-25 Portable Radio set:


But that's before he calls in an aerial bombardment and churns the very earth beneath your feet into a broiling hell that Dante could never have imagined.


The Radioman is carefully chosen. He has to be someone with experience and steady nerves who won't get rattled under fire. He has to be able to read maps, too. If something happens to the commanding officer, the Radioman is essentially in command of the unit, calling in fire support, medevacs, and reinforcements. It's also an exceptionally dangerous job, since the conspicuous radio antenna says to the enemy "Shoot ME first!"

Here's a closeup of the details on top of his radio pack:


The A/N PRC-25 (called the "prick 25" by GIs) is a compact, lightweight, tactical, VHF solid-state portable radio set. Over its service life more than 130,000 sets were produced. Although mainly designed for manpack use, the PRC-25 can be mounted in vehicles or aircraft as well. It can survive a 50-foot drop from a helicopter onto a steel plank runway or up to an hour submerged in six feet of water and still function reliably. It was the most widely used piece of communication equipment in Vietnam and no suburban lawn is truly secure without one.

I've got a handful of these guys listed in the Etsy shop.  You can order your own by clicking HERE.


More projects in the works as always.  Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any updates.

COMING SOON: Radio Gnome

When the fight on the ground gets too thick and the infantry is at the risk of being overrun, garden defenders know they can always count on the radioman for help.  The enemy might think he looks harmless armed with nothing more than his A/N PRC-25 portable radio, but they'll change their tune when he calls in an airstrike and levels the playing field.

Here's a shot of the sculpt in progress:


I tried to capture the expression of a gnome in the middle of calling for an F-bomb.

I still have to sculpt his radio pack.  For right now, he just has a blank space:


As soon as I've finished the molds, it'll be time to crank out copies and list them in my Etsy shop: http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli

In the meantime, I need some more ideas for a backstory to go with this guy.  Any suggestions?

Gnomes in Stock

The votes are in and the results were overwhelmingly in favor of sculpting the Mortar Launcher as the next Combat Garden Gnome.  Here's a few snapshots of the sculpt in progress:
 





There's still a few details to sort out, then I'll be ready to start making the mold for this guy.  Meanwhile, I've got a lot of other gnomes in stock:


You can pick up one (or many) of your very own at http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli right now.  Use the coupon code "BLOGGER" at checkout for 10% off your order.

Also, I had someone ask me a while back if it's possible to buy prints of the photos I use in the Etsy listings.  So I went ahead and set up my Deviant Art gallery to offer prints.  You can check it out here: http://thorssoli.deviantart.com/gallery/

I've got four or five big projects that are rapidly approaching their finish lines.  Be sure to check back soon for updates.

Coming Soon: Bayonet Attack Gnome!!

I've finally got the first batch of these angry little guys out of the mold:


As you can see, painting is still in progress:


The first few should be ready to deploy in about a week.  Then they can harass your other lawn gnomes:


They'll be joining the other nine Combat Garden Gnome variants already available in my Etsy shop at http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli.

Thanks for looking.

I'm still working on a back story for the new bayonet gnome.  Any suggestions?
 

Looks Like the Clock is Still Ticking on My Fifteen Minutes of Fame...

For those of you who didn't see Nightline last night:


I thought I had a backlog of orders to fill before.  I think it's about to get worse...

When it Rains it Pours

Right now it's raining Combat Garden Gnomes.

I've just come back from my annual training with the naval reserves and it turns out I've got a huge backlog of orders for combat garden gnomes waiting to ship. 

I've even enlisted help:


If you're one of the hundred or so customers currently waiting on orders to ship, please be patient while I work through them. 

I’ve been restocking the Etsy shop as fast as I can, but I don’t have any on hand right now while I’m trying to catch up on shipping my outstanding orders.  If you’d like to pre-order one of my gnomes, shoot me an email at sthorsson99@yahoo.com. 

You can see all of the different variants I make in this flickr photo set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8050182@N06/sets/72157623870627643/

In other news, I've just received the first set of photos of one of my Combat Garden Gnomes in an actual combat zone: 
 

That photo was taken at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan.  Here's a close-up showing this particular little gnome augmentee in all his forward deployed glory:


Awesome.


.

Nice Bit of Feedback

Yesterday a long time friend and repeat Combat Garden Gnome customer posted this picture.  He purchased both of these gnomes in the same week and set them out in his yard two years ago:

So this is what one of my gnomes looks like after two years worth of New Mexico sun and snow* and whatnot.  I'm pretty damned proud of my paintjob.  

Combat Garden Gnomes: much more resilient than those other garden gnomes.

In other news, I've posted up another handful of Flamethrower Gnomes in my Etsy shop: http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli if you've been waiting for one.

*yes, apparently it snows in New Mexico.

.

It's Been a While Since I've Posted Anything...

I still don't have anything to post just yet, so here's a picture of a Combat Garden Gnome squad being overrun by snails:

The best part is this little detail:

Stay tuned.  More interesting stuff to come.

In the meantime, if you want some Combat Gnomes of your own, you can pick them up in my etsy shop at http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli.
 

More Gnomes in Progress

I've been scrambling on a lot of projects these past few weeks and I've neglected the Combat Garden Gnomes for a while. That said, here's a work-in-progress of the long-awaited flamethrower gnome:

I'm pretty happy with how he's coming together, but I seem to have stumbled into whatever the sculptor's equivalent of writer's block. Until I figure out what it is I don't like about that one, I've been working on the Minesweeper Gnome:

Not pictured just to the left of that frame is the very rough early version of the Heavy Machine Gun Gnome.

If everything goes according to plan, I should have all three wrapped up and molded by the end of the weekend.

In order to pay for the molding and casting material for these guys, I've listed yet another pile of unpainted gnomes in my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/thorssoli.  

Get them while they're hot!

Gnome Again, Gnome Again, Jiggity Jig...

I've finally managed to get some more of my Combat Garden Gnomes back in stock.  This includes my first painted batch of these guys:

 

There's more of the RPG gnomes too:

I've also got plenty of painted and unpainted castings of the other poses as well.  All available now in my Etsy shop, http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli.

Get them while they're hot.

More Gnomes in Stock

I've just updated my Etsy shop, so you can now buy a few of these guys:

Here's a detail shot:

I don't have any painted copies of that one available, but I do have some of these guys:

The RPG gnome is just what you need once your gophers develop armored vehicles:

You can purchase these and all of my other varieties of Combat Garden Gnomes in my Etsy shop: http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli

Coming Soon: Combat Garden Gnome Officer with Pistol!

Dawn. The morning sun peeks over the top of the distant, gently rolling hills to the East. The dew glistens in the golden light of early day. In the growing light, the silence is only broken by the occasional chirping bird.

The ball goes up. A shrill whistle. The distant thump of a field gun. The dogs of war unleashed, gnomes charge across the plain, shouting their ferocious battle cry amidst the din of staccato machine gun fire punctuated by mortar explosions and the massive "CRUMP" of an artillery shell. As the cacophony of combat reaches it's crescendo, one voice can be heard above it all, bellowing, "FOLLOW ME!"

Until now, my combat garden gnomes have been warriors without a leader. Gnome officer candidate school takes time, but I've finally come up with this guy:

A fearless leader at the forefront of any fight, I've sculpted him looking back over his shoulder and urging his troops forward.  I'm especially proud of the facial expression:

I'll be starting on the molds for this guy today and then I'll be offering up painted and unpainted copies in my etsy shop: http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli

Stay tuned...

In the Game of Garden Warfare, Escalation is Everyone's Enemy

The garden gnomes started by giving each other dirty looks.  Then there were angry words, thrown stones, and the occasional late-night assault.  Then, before you know it, they're firing explosive ordnance at each other. When the time for carnage inevitably comes, there's no better choice than the Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomyot, hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher. Known more famously as the RPG-7.


In the hands of an untrained guerilla, the RPG-7 can have deadly effect. Wielded by the seemingly-harmless garden gnome, it becomes downright devastating:



The low-cost ruggedness, reliabile simplicity, and thorough effectiveness of the RPG-7 has made it the most widely used rocket-propelled grenade launcher in the world. Dozens of nations use the weapon, and it is manufactured in numerous variants. Especially popular with irregular and guerrilla forces, it's been used for over fifty years in almost all conflicts across all continents from Vietnam to Afghanistan.


Now it's coming to your backyard:


I've got a few unpainted castings for sale in my Etsy shop: http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli.

Get yourself one before your garden pests start building their own armored vehicles:


I'm still working on the combat garden gnome officer with a pistol, so stay tuned...

.

I Need Cash to Pay for my Projects Again

So I'm selling another batch of my Combat Garden Gnomes.  Here's a crappy cellphone pic showing them all lined up on the table:




You can buy them (and see better pictures of them) in my Etsy shop: http://etsy.com/shop/thorssoli.  Get them while they're hot.

Now Available: Combat Garden Gnomes with Grenades

First off, here's a picture of the finished sculpt next to the standing and kneeling versions:

As you can see, this guy is the heaviest gnome I've made yet.

Here's the first copy out of the mold:


As usual, the original sculpt did not survive the molding process:


I don't have any painted ones just yet, but when I do I'll be posting them up as well.

If you'd like an unpainted one, I've got some up in my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/thorssoli

Stay tuned...

.