.50cal Machine Gun Gnome

I've got a batch of these guys in the works right now:
 
It'll still be a while before I post any of them for sale online, but for now I'm hoping to have a handful of them painted up in time for the Bazaar Bizaare this weekend. See details of the event here: http://www.facebook.com/bazaarbizarresf

Kali Costume Part 3: PROPS

I've already written a couple of articles about building the Kali costume for Hi-Rez Studios multiplayer game SMITE.

Part 1: Building the Rack of a Goddess
Part 2: It's Hard to Find a Model with Four Arms

Since she now has four arms, it's time to give her something to hold onto.  In most traditional depictions, Kali is shown carrying a sword or trident, a severed head representing the human ego, and a skull-cup or "Kapala" to catch the blood draining from the head.  Here's the way she looks in SMITE:

If you'd like to see how I went about making the swords, the cup, and the severed head, read on.

Combat Garden Gnome Minesweeper

After months of putting it off, I've finally finished the latest addition to the Department of Gnomeland Security, the minesweeper:


Armed with nothing more than a metal detector and grim determination, this little combat engineer moves into the minefield ahead of the other troops, often under enemy fire, to ensure the way ahead is safe for his fellow gnomes:


Naturally, his occupation causes him some concern:
Worried about landmines in your yard or garden? You can get your own Minesweeper Gnome in my Etsy shop in a couple of weeks.  

In the meantime, I'll have a batch of them at my Bazaar Bizarre booth in San Francisco during the first weekend in December.  You can read more details about the event HERE. 

 

The best part: Square Wallet is doing a special promotion to offer $10 off your first purchase of the day using the Square Wallet app.  That, plus the fact that you won't have to pay for shipping, means that this will be the lowest price you can possibly find for a Combat Garden Gnome.

Recent UFO Sightings in the Workshop

Here's the latest collection of UnFinished Objects I've been working on in the shop...

First up, I've decided to make myself a replica of the Ironman Mk2 and Mk3 costumes as seen in the first Ironman movie.  Most of the work is being done by Lopez the Robot Whittler and Jarvis, my new Objet 30 Pro 3D printer.  Here's the right shin and boot parts:


While the robots are making my Ironman parts, I've pulled out some spare parts I had lying around and started working on another character from Red vs. Blue, Agent Washington.  I've been taking tons of pictures of this build along the way, so expect a very detailed step-by-step description of the assembly process soon.  For now, here's the helmet in it's base color:


In between more serious projects, Jenny from the dock has been stopping by from time to time to help tinker in the workshop.  Somewhere along the way, we decided to encase her in carbonite.  Here's a shot of the project in progress:


While all of that's been going on, I've also been working on more Combat Garden Gnomes to add to the lineup.  Here's the Heavy Machine Gunner sculpt that I finished the other day:


The gun in question is the M2HB .50cal machine gun, which I printed out on the 3D printer:


On the subject of Combat Gnomes, I've finished the first Minesweeper gnome.


I'll be writing about all of these projects separately over the next several days, so stay tuned...

Halloween Project 2012: GHOSTBUSTERS!

If you were out and about in downtown Petaluma for Halloween, there a good chance you stumbled across a handful of Ghostbusters while you were out.  Here's a few of them:

If you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you've seen  me mention my friend Matt several times.  This particular project has been on his to-do list for quite some time.  In fact, this year marked the fifth time he's gone as a Ghostbuster since the film was originally released.  While most of those were thrown-together costumes when he was in elementary school or cheap store-bought outfits later in life, he'd never had a chance to really put together an accurate replica of the costume.

This project started in mid-September while I was out of town for my annual training with the naval reserve.   I came home to find a corner in the shop completely filled with Ghostbusters paraphernalia and drawings.  Matt took the lead on most of the build and I was glad to help where I could.  Mostly I provided tools and materials in the prototyping phase, then got more involved in the final assembly and painting phase.

Since I never build one of anything, the plan was to get together as many people as we could to go out on the town looking like we'd just snagged a bunch of costumes and props straight out of the film.  When all was said and done, there were nine of us. 

For more pictures of the group and details about the build, read on...