Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone

Sci-Fi

521

Following

128

Followers

Updates

2255

Likes

482

Comments

Votes

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.

Followers

5 L

MS D

3S DH

Back to contestant profile

Metamorphosis week 8, ep. 55 - transforming the shield part 1 1

Metamorphosis week 8, ep. 55 - transforming the shield part 1 2

Metamorphosis week 8, ep. 55 - transforming the shield part 1 3

Metamorphosis week 8, ep. 55 - transforming the shield part 1 4

Sci-Fi

84 days ago

Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

Metamorphosis week 8, ep. 55 - transforming the shield part 1

Ciao! Today’s update is the painting of the clay filling the gaps between the Zaku shield and the bark.

The same colors used previously were adopted in this instance in a mix 60 charred brown, 40 red terracotta. The results are pretty good, imho. Do you concur?

Next step: washes to blend everything in.

S
STUDIO93543 days ago
What a great mix of browns :p
- CC
  Cristian Carlone43 days ago
  Replying to STUDIO935
  @studio935, thank you! Yes, it turned out quite nice! Glad you appreciated it.
AQ
Arvin Quezada84 days ago
This is a very unique idea
- CC
  Cristian Carlone84 days ago
  Replying to Arvin Quezada
  @arvinquezada, thank you! I’m glad you find it unique. It’s part of the metamorphosis concept at the base of this project.

Followers

5 L

MS D

3S DH