Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone

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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 week 9, ep. 58 - Test fitting and a second thought 1

Metamorphosis week 9, ep. 58 - Test fitting and a second thought 2

Metamorphosis week 9, ep. 58 - Test fitting and a second thought 3

Metamorphosis week 9, ep. 58 - Test fitting and a second thought 4

Metamorphosis week 9, ep. 58 - Test fitting and a second thought 5

Sci-Fi

81 days ago

Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

Metamorphosis week 9, ep. 58 - Test fitting and a second thought

Ciao! After applying a clay-based black wash to the bark, I started test fitting the Zaku shield. The bark sticks out significantly and the only “comfortable” position is heavily tilted forward.

I do not like it. It look unnatural to me and the bark connects too little with the bark on the base.
I’ll trim be bark base to make the shield stand vertical and the bark as sprouting out from the base.

Also, I’m having second thoughts about the Zeon symbol on the shield. The outline looks bad. I’ll remove it.

S
STUDIO93543 days ago
Great job adjusting the shield :p
- CC
  Cristian Carlone42 days ago
  Replying to STUDIO935
  @studio935, thank you! For a brief moment I was afreaid to have ruined it, though….
GT
Galen Thompson79 days ago
Looks great, I'm going to have to pick some of this stuff.
- CC
  Cristian Carlone79 days ago
  Replying to Galen Thompson
  @galenthompson, thank you! I recommend Flory Model washes. So easy to use, better than enamel ones.
S
studionaiya3d80 days ago
good effect.
- CC
  Cristian Carlone80 days ago
  Replying to studionaiya3d
  @studionaiya3d , thank you, sir!
AQ
Arvin Quezada81 days ago
Its such a very nice weathering effect
- CC
  Cristian Carlone81 days ago
  Replying to Arvin Quezada
  @arvinquezada, thank you. I recommend the Flory Models wash. It’s water and clay based and gives a great gritty finish perfect for weathering and it can be reactivated or cleaned with water.

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