Yes, this is a nine-foot-tall Jayson Werth gnome made out of tuna fish cans

For people flying into or out of Reagan National Airport this month, they're in for quite a scene: Namely, a nine-foot tall Jayson Werth gnome sculpture made out of $3,800 of canned tuna fish. Who knew how versatile those cans were. 

Built for the annual Canstruction competition to benefit local hunger relief groups, KGD Architecture settled on making the Werth gnome after seeing how popular they were around the city. As the designer, Sam Robinson, told us over email, "With the gnome being sort of a cultural icon for the city this season, we figured it would be something people would get excited about and help us bring attention to the cause. Lots of people tossed out other ideas, but the Werth Gnome was the one everyone got most excited about." It clearly was infectious -- KGD raised over $7,000 for the project with all the food and additional funds being donated to charity. 

And if you thought that making Werth's visage out of tuna fish cans was easy, think again. While it took a group of employees approximately six hours to build, Robinson estimates that he spent somewhere near "40-50 hours" of digital modeling on the design. He even needed to call in a couple of co-workers to help with the more difficult structural issues: "Namely, how to support his beard since it hangs out so far over his stomach."

Progress shot. 4 hours in. #gnomemorehunger @AFACtweets @CanstructNOVA pic.twitter.com/59ILD5rpFp

- KGD Architecture (@KGDArchitecture) November 15, 2014

As for the choice of tuna fish, that was easy. After looking for cans that were the right color for the jersey, skin and beard, they chose the tuna cans as they were the smallest and could make for the most detailed Werth Gnome possible. Afterwards, the group claimed that they chose the fish because they knew that "Jayson Werth has a gluten-free diet, so we decided to act like we did that on purpose the whole time..."

Finally, Robinson has one message for the right fielder: 

"Sorry your nose looks like Janet Jackson's."

The Canstruction entries will be on display until Nov. 22nd with all the canned food that was used being donated to local charities. And to vote for the Werth Gnome, click here.