"Fishing"

As is probably apparent with my ramblings so far on this blog, I like robots. Indeed. But I also like whimsical things. So where possible, I combine them. The result was a diorama of a 1:100 scale Master Grade Zaku II v2.0 (the very same one in the first photo of the last blog entry) with a fishing rod. Yes, a Zaku-sized fishing rod. A Brief Brief If the question buzzing through your head at the moment is: "Why?", then my answer would be "Why not?" The title of this diorama is "Fishing". I know, a rather dull title, but it works. This was entered into competitions at my local Japanese toy hobby store (Hobby One) and to a competition in Japan with the Hobby Japan monthly magazine. I must thank Yoshi, who runs Hobby One, who assisted with my entry submission and also a fellow competitor. I didn't win either of the two, but that's fine as I only entered for fun and basically for the learning experience. It was a blast. It humbles me to admit that the competition was fierce - there are tons of great modellers out there. If you manage to pick up a copy of the February 2010 issue of Hobby Japan, you can find my entry misspelled "Fvishing" amongst the many non-winning runner-up entries. Unfortunately the photo selected was not one of the better shots to use in a thumbnail. Alas, can't complain! It's exciting enough for a novice like myself to have been selected amongst the runner ups. On the photo Today I'm presenting one of the photos I was able to amass for this project. I'm no great photographer, but this is arguably one the better images in the collection, and also an accident. The best received amongst all those I've shown it to, at least. This accident I am referring to is a visual illusion that extends the diorama beyond its boundaries. Observe the near portion of the river. The uneven surface of the clear resin (done by prodding the surface with a brush while it was setting) combined with the reflection of natural sunlight results in the illusion of foam on the surface. This makes it look like there are currents in the water. Next observe the lake and the bank on the far side. These don't exist. Or rather, they do exist, but they're not part of the diorama. The diorama ends where the water changes from light to dark. Observe the horizontal bar of light close to the far bank. That's really a clear strip of plastic that I used to contain the river. If you look at the part of the photo closest to you, you'll see the other strip of clear PVC sheet containing the other side of the river and bank. Notice how that part of the photo looks like a 3d cutaway of the river. One thing I like about this photo is how the sun and shade play off the Zaku, the fishing rod and the terrain. Though silhouetted (and thus masking all the details), the lighting results are almost artistic. The overall picture works very well to viewers that glance at it for the first time. If you inspect it too much, or if you've been reading my comments here, you'll discover that it's just an illusion. If you squint your eyes, you'll probably even see the tiny pilot that's by the Zaku's right shoulder shield. Just under the diamond shaped light reflecting off the shield. Don't worry if you do not - the pilot's not the focus of the photo. When I get a chance, I'll put up higher-res version of all the better photos on my Photobucket account.