Hi, I couldn't get your code running to verify you didn't include enough to run the whole program, but I did notice that `main` and `reshape` methods set different zNear values: 1 and 0.01 respectively.  How are you translating the object?
 
I am taking a graphics class and I have a problem I have not been able to
resolve. When I translate along the Z axis objects are clipped before their
size changes. It almost seems likes its stuck using a ortho prjojection some
how. That being said the clip plan is very close and to me does not resemble
the one I set in gluPerspective. It starts to clip after being translated
-0.6 units down the z axis.

Attached is the code that I use to setup the projection matrix.

main = do
 (progname, _) ←  getArgsAndInitialize
 --initialContextVersion 3 0
 createWindow "Ben Christy Assignment 2"
 windowSize $= Size 800 600
 matrixMode $= Projection
 loadIdentity
 depthFunc $= Just Less
 viewport   $= (Position 0 0, Size 800 600)
 perspective 60 1.333 1 1200
 --tableModel ←  initModelVBO (vertexTupleListToVertexList table)
 changesRef ←  newIORef Map.empty
 sceneRef ←  newIORef buildSSG
 balloonState ←  newIORef There
 balloonZTarget ←  newIORef 4
 balloonZStart ←  newIORef 0
 balloonStep ←  newIORef 0
 balloonNumSteps ←  newIORef 0
 reshapeCallback $= Just reshape
 displayCallback $= (displayScene sceneRef changesRef )
 --addTimerCallback  10 (animate sceneRef changesRef balloonState
balloonZTarget balloonZStart balloonStep balloonNumSteps)
 keyboardMouseCallback $= Just (handleInput sceneRef changesRef)
 mainLoop
reshape (Size w h) = do
 print "resize"
 matrixMode $= Projection
 loadIdentity
 depthFunc $= Just Less
 viewport   $= (Position 0 0, Size w h)
 perspective 60 1.333 0.01 1200
 matrixMode $= Modelview 1
 loadIdentity
 postRedisplay Nothing