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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Sci-Fi

62 days ago

Cristian Carlone

@cristiancarlone | Sci-Fi

After Metamorphosis

Ciao! Now that the project is over I show a couple of photos taken of the “almost” finished model on my balcony, under natural light.
I will continue to post throughout the rest of the competition but not necessarily about the project I presented. Maybe other works I done or future ideas.
This GWCC community is a great one and it’s fun and good to stay engaged.

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gekoch62 days ago
I am hoping to see more of your work.
- CC
  Cristian Carlone62 days ago
  Replying to gekoch
  @gekoch, thank you! Very kind of you. I’ll post more of my past work these days and you can also check my YouTube channel (link is st the bottom of my biography).
- G
  gekoch62 days ago
  Replying to Cristian Carlone
  @cristiancarlone I will be sure to check it out large not on my desktop. Later today
- CC
  Cristian Carlone62 days ago
  Replying to gekoch
  @gekoch, no problem, no pressure. And thanks in advance for checking my (small) channel!
S
studionaiya3d62 days ago
It turned out fantastic
- CC
  Cristian Carlone62 days ago
  Replying to studionaiya3d
  @studionaiya3d, thank you! I hope you have seen the final submission photos and video I posted over the past weekend.
M
Make_3d_print62 days ago
Está quedando espectacular!
- CC
  Cristian Carlone62 days ago
  Replying to Make_3d_print
  @make3dprint, muchas gracias!
J
john_n_porter62 days ago
This looks great in the light…..
- CC
  Cristian Carlone62 days ago
  Replying to john_n_porter
  @johnnporter, thank you! I like the natural light but I preferred taken the final photos in the booth. However, I did not use artificial lights for the photoshoot, but placed the booth facing natural light.

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