Sneak Preview: Work in Progress

It's still going to be a couple weeks before I'm going to be able to tell you what I'm working on right now.  In the meantime, here's a teaser:

And a closeup of some of the details:

I really can't wait to show this off... 

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Gnomes In Stock Now

In case you've been waiting for me to restock my Etsy shop, now's the time to load up on Combat Garden Gnomes.

There's painted gnome shooters in standing and prone positions, grenade throwers, and pistol-wielding gnome fighters.  I've also listed a handful of unpainted castings in each pose (including the rocket launcher gnome) for you DIY types.

They sell out pretty fast, so don't hesitate.  You can get yours by clicking HERE.

Thanks for looking.

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UFO Sightings

I've been working long hours trying to crank out a couple of paid projects that I'm not really allowed to write about just yet.

Not being able to show off my work has been wearing at me though, so here's a collection of pictures of UnFinished Objects (UFOs) that I've got in the works right now.

First up, I've decided to dust off the Republic Commando project again.  To make progress, I printed out a bunch of the remaining pep models.  Here's half a suit of armor in the "before" stage:

Since I'm swamped, I coerced Trevor the Walking Mannequin into putting the peps together.  Here's the gut guard (aka "space-age tighty-whities"):

Here they are reinforced with fiberglass:

Whenever I'm taking a break from paid projects, I've been tinkering with my new and improved Halo 3 EVA helmet:

I've been making molds like crazy too.  In the past month I've burned through fifteen gallons of silicone moldmaking rubber and today I should be getting five more.  Here's some molds in progress for a commission:

All of these molds are for a pair of projects I can't write about just yet.  So I can't show you the insides:

I also can't show you any of the raw casts all put together:

 

I can't show the other pieces I'm working on either:

 

This last pair of projects also has me doing more lifecasting than I've done in years:

 

I've been making arms, hands, heads, boobs, and even teeth:

Suffice it to say,  I'm looking forward to having the current project lineup finished and delivered so I can show them off.  It'll all make sense soon.

Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any updates...

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Tacticool Spraypaint

A while back, I bought a pistol grip attachment to hook onto rattle cans for more ergonomically friendly spraypainting.  The other day, when my sister was in the shop complaining about a sore spraypainting finger, I set it up for her.  

Then she mentioned that she was having trouble getting used to aiming the thing.  My friend Matt was in the shop too and decided to hook her up:

Fortunately, I happen to have at least half a dozen laser sights and pieces of Picatinny rail (alternatively known as the MIL-STD-1913 rail, STANAG 2324 rail, or simply "Tactical Rail") in my workshop at any given time:

 

For short-range, close-in work like this, the laser sight is the only way to be sure...

 

If only I had a spare red dot quick reflex scope...

Girly Digicamo Halo Helmets

About a million years ago, I made some costumes based on the characters from the popular webseries Red vs. Blue. What's less known is that while I was going through the process of building the helmet, I started by making a smaller version that I could use as a sort of rough draft in order to master the process. Here's an early progress shot:

Somewhere along the way, I figured I had enough of a handle on the smoothing and detailing process for the helmet and I stopped doing the detail work on the little one.  Still, months after completing the rest of the armor, I went ahead and made a mold so I could make a few copies of the smaller helmet.

Just before leaving for Afghanistan, my sister commissioned me to make a full-sized Master Chief helmet for a co-worker's son. Once he'd received it, his two younger sisters began clamoring for helmets of their own. So my sister came by the workshop and I handed her the molds, pointed out the wide selection of spraypaints, and set her to work:

After a few hours of sanding, filling, grinding, gluing, spraying, and stenciling, here's what she'd come up with:

The original plan was a three-color digital camo pattern with pixelated hearts picked out in purple over a base of pink. After a quick first pass with the heart stencils, she decided to keep it uncluttered.

 Here they are with the faceshields installed:

The girls that will own them already have a matched pair of pink Nerf guns with tiny purple hearts stenciled all over them.  Apparently they're also of an age where they frequently wear matching outfits and constantly pal around together.  This spawned the decision to make the two helmets a mirror image of each other.  

Even the names on the back are on opposite sides:
 

The end result is lethally adorable:

 
More insanity to come. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any updates.

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