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Cristian Carlone cover image
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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone

Sci-Fi

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Following

128

Followers

91

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Project Summary

This project draws on two passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, both describing humans transformed into trees — not as illustration, but as inspiration for a scene in its own right. The discovery of a beautiful piece of bark during a mountain hike with my wife provided the ideal starting point. The kit I chose is a vintage Zaku II in 1/144 scale.


The first of the two passages is from Book I, where the nymph Daphne, fleeing Apollo, begs her father Peneus to change her form:


“….. A filmy rind about her body grows; Her hair to leaves, her arms extend to boughs: The nymph is all into a lawrel gone;…...”


The second passage comes from Book VIII, where the elderly Baucis and Philemon are transformed together at the moment of death — bark sealing their final words to one another:


“Old Baucis is by old Philemon seen Sprouting with sudden leaves of spritely green: ……., And saw his lengthen’d arms a sprouting wood: New roots their fasten’d feet begin to bind, Their bodies stiffen in a rising rind: Then, ere the bark above their shoulders grew,…..”


This diorama imagines a Zaku II, mid-patrol, seized by a sudden and rapid metamorphosis into bark. The cause is deliberately left untold — the scene is concerned only with the fact that it is happening, not why. The mecha shows only minor wear and tear: this is not an abandoned machine reclaimed slowly by time, but an active one undergoing an unexpected transformation.


Its legs have already been absorbed into the tree — only two broken fragments of a leg’s connecting cable remain, snapped off and emerging from the bark. The skirt armor has started its transformation, shards of bark protruding between the skirt gaps.

The shield at its side is more advanced in the transformation, the wood having taken over it’s lower
part. Vines emerge from the bark and slither along and over the Zaku’s arms and upper body, pinning it down the way roots seal over anything in their path. The shoulders are also covered, like vegetation hands holding it down. The mecha cannot pull free; it is being covered, so the transformation can continue. Still, in a futile attempt, one arm tries to lift what’s left of the body; the other reaches out, its hand open, fingers spread, in a call for help that will go unanswered.

Using natural bark, moss, and lichen, this piece is inspired by Ovid but also pays a small homage to a recurring theme in Tomino’s Gundam saga: nature reclaiming what humanity has taken from it.


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Metamorphosis is back! 1
Metamorphosis is back! 2
Sci-Fi

29 min ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

Metamorphosis is back!

Ciao! I’m very happy to be back into this fantastic community of great modelers and creators!

I’ve uploded again my final submission adding to the description the link to the “Making of” video I published today on my YouTube channel.
Link to my channel: https://youtube.com/@natalebabbo-gunplaanddioramas?si=-rhqLUE2Lv8dTGPG

Link to the “Making of” video (sorry no audio but background music only)
https://youtu.be/kUfj89ZBQso?is=DuXBs00P2k3xLFR2


Hope you’ll check it out and enjoy!

Your browser does not support embedded video playback.
Sci-Fi

39 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis, ep. 14 - Forget-me-not, part 2 (the same as part 1!)

Ciao! This is the video of my final submission, as a reminder.

So this is it! Voting will start in a few hours. Good luck 🍀 to everyone. From my perspective, everyone of us is a winner just to have the courage to enter the competition and challenge oneself.
Let’s keep building!
NOTE: The text of this post has been partially updated after the hack. The part on the voting has remained as it was in the original.

After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 1
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 2
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 3
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 4
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 5
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 6
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 7
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 8
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 9
After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1 10
Sci-Fi

40 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis- ep. 13 - Forget-me-not part 1

Ciao! I’ve uploaded the photos of my final submission of some weeks ago.

I’ll upload the video tomorrow, as last post of the competition.

Thank you all for following, liking (maybe sharing) my journey. Your support and care were of great encouragement in my first ever modeling competition.

This is an amazing community .

Thanks again to Gaahleri for organizing and sponsoring it!

Good luck to everyone and no matter the results it was and still is a wonderful experience.

Ciao!

After metamorphosis, ep. 12 - more past shots

Sci-Fi

41 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis, ep. 12 - more past shots

Ciao! As we’re really getting close to the finish line, I’m posting a few more past photos of project Metamorphosis.

in the next two days, I’ll repost my final submission (repetita juvant) 😉

After metamorphosis, ep. 11 - older photos

Sci-Fi

42 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis, ep. 11 - older photos

Ciao! These are older photos took during the metamorphosis work in progress. Some may be duplicates of images I posted earlier, butt it’s good to showcase my project as we approach the finish line!

After metamorphosis, ep. 10 - Some bragging!

Sci-Fi

43 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis, ep. 10 - Some bragging!

Ciao! This post shows some photos of the exhibition of my gunpla collection that occurred between September 2023 and April 2024 at MUFANT, the Science Fiction and Fantasy museum in my city (www.mufant.it). I curated the whole exhibition and all the pieces are part of my collection. Not only Gunpla, but records, posters, settei, and some gadgets celebrating Gundam and gunple by each decade showing the evolution of design and technology but als the impact the Gundam had and still has on Japanese popular culture. The local newspaper had an article and the local tv station had it on its evening news.
Now you also know where my profile image comes from,….. a video tour of the exhibition can be seen on my YouTube channel (see my bio).

After metamorphosis, ep. 9 - Non dimenticar……

Sci-Fi

44 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis, ep. 9 - Non dimenticar……

Ciao! As we are approaching the finish line of this modeling contest journey, after posting past work, I thought it was important to show my entry. So, I uploaded some photos of Metamorphosis to help remembering it. No new images, but still worth displaying them again!

After metamorphosis, ep. 8 Old projects

Sci-Fi

45 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis, ep. 8 Old projects

Ciao! Some photos of a March 2022 build, the GM Intercept Custom, from Gundam Origin. I was playing with some poses….

After metamorphosis ep. 7 (I think). More Zaku!

Sci-Fi

46 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis ep. 7 (I think). More Zaku!

Ciao! I think you all by now know I ike the Zaku 😂 This video is from May 2021 depicting Char‘s Zaku II RG and a little vignette base made from plaster and weathered with washes and pigments to represent a portion of a rubble filled street with the Zaku charging and about to wield its heathawk.

Fun project. Now this vignette is on display in one of the windows of a local comic and games store in my neighborhood.

After metamorphosis, ep. Who knows now 😂

Sci-Fi

47 days ago

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Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After metamorphosis, ep. Who knows now 😂

Ciao, Following the site crash and losses of posts, photos, etc., I’m reposting the photos of the project I picked up after submitting my GWCC entry over 2 weeks ago.

It’s WWII soviet antitank cannon from Italeri. A vintage kit. Fun and easy to build, good for practice, especially on miniature painting.
I”ll make a vignette with it.

Biography

I started building plastic models in 1970, when I was in first grade. The passion never abandoned me even if I had long pauses in building. I like airplanes primarily in 1/48 scale and tanks in 1/35 scale. I discovered Gundam in 1980 and fell in love with it. I built my first gunpla in 1983. I like to build dioramas and vignettes, trying to use natural materials mostly collected during hikes in the Alps, when possible. I have a snall YouTube channel where i upload my creations. I'm not a pro modeler by all means but I try my best to create stories. I hope you'll like to follow my journey on this project! Ciao!

@natalebabbo-gunplaanddioramas
Followers (128)
585hillbillygarage
5
L
Bruce Levine
BL
Model Maker Margate
MM
Adam Jusyk
AJ
megs
M
antampatz
A
Sanitysfall
S
Maksymilian Spaczyński
MS
D
pink.sln
P
KaGunplaPh
K
Astorga Minis
AM
3DigiCraft Studio
3S
DH
ozzys
O
hector
H
Dac3dStudio
D
Samantha Suratos
SS
nemo box
NB