Looey Loves to Read the Blog in the Morning

I love a read of Moonbase in the morning! I especially enjoy the interaction with the other viewers who leave comments.

My only regret is we can't upload pictures as well as comments.

Just today there were three posts I wish I could visually contribute to.

In no particular order:

Talk of Video cassettes reminded me of a rubber suit I was commissioned to build for Fox Video of Giger's Alien, way back in the early 80's....

Talk of 60's War comics made me think about how I'm using the layouts to inspire my own puppet film...

Talk of Mole Machines and kit bashing fits in with my current 3D modelling adventures...

Thanks for making my mornings so stimulating, Moonbasers!

Looey's Trip to Mid Mountains Vintage

Hello Moonbasers! 

I thought I'd chip in another Antique store adventure for you to enjoy.

This is Mid Mountains Vintage, literally five minutes up the road from our house!

It's not great shakes as far as old toys goes during this visit, although my wife found a Triang Dolls House in good condition and at a good price last year.

(In reverse order)

1) The frontage on the Great Western Highway at Woodford.

2) Welcome Foolish Mortals (I hope you brought your money with you...)

3) Tell 'em they're dreaming at this don't bother to repeat price!

4) A wide selection of mint tea towels, including this 1979 calendar with original Coles price tag of 50 cents.

Coles Stores have since devolved into grocery markets that are half of Australia's proud sypermarket duopoly. (Proud for the share holders, anyway!)

5) Anyone familiar with Super City construction kits? I'd never seen them before, but that illustrated logo is grouse! Available only at Coles Stores... hmmm, where have I heard that name before?

Anyway, apart from some overpriced Afghanistan Peace Keeper soldier figures (who seemed to be suffering from PVC PTSD) there was no-one to stop me marching out with my pocket money still intact!

If I think about it, there are several other Antique shops in our beautiful Blue Mountains that probably fit the Moonbase vibe.

I'll go visit them sometime soon, just for the sake of you lucky people!

Hoo Roo for now, Looey, 

Oz Base

Looey's Hammer

I've been working on a HUMONGOUS 3D print for a friend. It's sort of a War Hammer thing!

Cheers

Looey

Oz Base

Magician Looey's Tricks Revealed!

Hello Moonbasers! 

Thanks for your interest In my opening ID shot.

My original comic was inspired almost 30 years ago by seeing a photograph of a tomb statue in a book called Egyptian Disease by Dr Joyce Filer.

It detailed the many ailments that threatened these ancient people. In the section on congential diseases, there was a discussion of the various types of dwarfism and how the Ancient Egyptians believed that affected people were "Lucky", as they associated them with the Gods Ptah and Bes.

Many people are familiar with the exquisite alabaster sculpture of a princess on a barge, found inside Tutankhamen's tomb.

Far fewer (myself included) tend to notice the small female dwarf at the stern, doing all the hard work of steering the boat!

For some reason, this image of an obviously real person spoke deeply to me and I began to wonder who she was. Our of those fantasies was born my comic.

I have always desired that figure, so about ten years ago I decided to make a replica. I have a detailed sequence of it's construction on my Instagram feed here

https://www.instagram.com/lewispmorley/p/CNYleXMBSya/

ANYWAY...

Here are the items needed for filming my ID shot.

A) The statue, shot on a Tamiya rotating plinth against greenscreen.

B) The title lettering, lasercut from MDF, built up with putty and sprayed gold, then mounted on bamboo skewers above a green felt backing

C) A Ferrero Roche chocolates Christmas tree style clear plastic package, hot glued upside down onto a piece of blue glitter cardboard.

The statue was shot rotating 180 degrees.

The lettering was shot with a key light sweeping across the upper edges (very early 80's graphic style!)

The clear cone was placed on the rotating plinth and shot from above.

The three separate elements were then combined in a friend's After Effects program to produce the final effect.

Having been shot at 4K resolution, there was still plenty of detail on the face when subjected to a digital crash zoom. And yes, referencing the Toho Godzilla films was all part of my nostalgic intent! There is a bit of black fringing in the close up, but again this feels like 1960s optical effects, rather than today's digital perfection!

So, the entire effort is me using my Old School techniques and current technology to produce the sort of thing that inspired my childhood!

This will be a love letter to Thunderbirds, Godzilla, The Battle of Britain and 60's popular culture.

Hopefully soon, I will be hanging plastic model Spitfires on sewing thread above models of England's green and pleasant land for the actual filming!

What will the end result be like? Hopefully it will look like Gerry Anderson and Benny Hill decided to make a home movie together!

Thanks for your time at this briefing, Chaps, -Flying Crew Dismissed!

Looey

Oz Base

Looey's Small Film Steps

Hi Woodsy!

You were asking about my progress on my puppet fillum...

I've completed a 1st version of the pre-viz which clocks in at 10 minutes. After suggestions from my collaborators (the Missus and my ex-work pal) I'm working hard on Ver. 2.

The only finished footage I've completed to date is my opening ID. This is all composited real imagery (as opposed to CGI or AI) I've smashed it down to low rez for posting as opposed to the 4K it was shot in!

If you're interested I can detail how I actually did it! (SPOILER it's actually more basic than you might suspect!)

Keep on Bloggin'

Looey

Oz Base

Looey's Day at Dirty Jane's

Dirty Jane's antique market in Bowral NSW Australia is one of the nicer antique stores still around, although I notice their overall prices are creeping up recently...

Viewers in Blighty may derive some amusement from these Colonial prices! ( halve A$ prices to get £!)

So here's a quick squizz from down under...

1) Some Tarzan books caught my eye and I thought "Woodsy would like to see those..

2) Plastic Gorillas and Werewolves, including a Petterson/Gimlin pose Bigfoot - too tasty at $35 each!

3) Wyn Toys, Wyn-Toy Products Pty Ltd, 1940-1982.

Australian made metal toy in fair unrestored condition...

4) Stupid prices on vintage die-casts

5) An amusing Australian Air Force livery, pedal style fighter display. Sadly NFS.

6) "£25 for a pair of plastic Noddy and Big Ears egg cups? Tell 'em they're dreaming!"

7) "Hmm, I recognise that name, what's that doing here? Oh right, this stall is PhotoAntiques. 

My Dad displayed his stuff in their upstairs gallery back in the '90s. This is probably a gift to them, which they're now trying to get a return on!"

Looey

Oz Base

Looey has a Robocop in his Garden!

Hello,

In response to a recent query about Robocop figures, we do have one!

He's driving a ruined car on our entryway with a lot of plants - courtesy of my good wife.

You can also see our Home Cinema in the background!

The car is a set dressing model I made for an Alex Proyas Adidas Claw TVC backing the late 90s.

I've included some on set snaps of the set up and the car, along with a suitably distressed Barbie's Jaguar! 

The Claw commercial actually contained a lot of visual elements that would see full fruition soon afterwards in Dark City. A film that would prove to be the highlight on my film miniatures career.

How is my puppet film going you asked? 

I'm working on a pre-viz film which is allowing me to get a good feel for the finished product. 

On the screen are some of the 200 plus hand-drawn elements needed to make an animated version of the final story. You can also see some rough pencilled storyboards and a toy version of my puppet heroine in her Ancient Egyptian phase!

The work is hugely satisfying, but very time consuming. I worked all yesterday afternoon and produced just 60 seconds of finished screen time!

Keep on bloggin' 

 Looey

"To carry a man, a larger edition is required...": an art box is born!

Hello Woodsy, my Missus has been getting up to all sorts of hijinks...

As Cliff Richard sang "I met a girl and she told me she loved me

I said you love me then love means you must like what I like"

Well, that's come home to roost with her latest 1/12 scale room box. 

It features a friend of ours in his studio (for the BlueMountainsPortrait Prize)

.

There are lots of lovely details like the broom made out of a toothbrush and the mandatory hidden mouse, but the crown jewel is a hand made miniature of George Pal's Time Machine, reimagined as a pull toy!

The disc at the rear and the cushions on the chair are made of Sculpey poly clay. The base is balsawood and aluminium wire. The carved timber details on the chair are cut out of plastic sheet and the flourishes built up with modelling paste and PVA glue (how does she do it?)

The whole thing is hand painted with chrome metallic paints for the details. I'd just bought a new box set of Green Stuff World metallics and it looks like it's left me already and gone to live in her paint drawer!

Hmmm, those wheels on the pull toy look awfully familiar... Ring any bells, Moonbasers?

Looey

Oz Base

"Tell him he's Dreaming ...,,,"

Hello Woodsy, 

I've always wanted to use that quote, from the classic Aussie comedy film The Castle (featuring Thunderbirds performer Charles Tingwell!)

You were mentioning how you could dream of anything, but you dream of mundanity!

I'm the same, always tedious procedurals about losing my keys or my pants...

But recently, with my puppet film shifting into high gear, I actually had some remembered dreams about my characters! 

 Not my diminutive leading lady (who I've been waking-dreaming about for over 25 years) but my sexy Woman of Mystery who gives my heroine a hard time in the 22nd Century! She read me the Riot Act and didn't break character for a second!

Then I had a dream about the cheesy 1960's Italian Sci-Fi rip-off of 2001:A Space Odyssey, that features as a movie they watch!

This was so unusual, I had to draw a pair of comics about it. I hope you enjoy them!

See you at the movies, 

Looey 

Oz Base

Happy New Year from Looey

Hello Woodsy, all the best for a creative and blogworthy New Year! Moonbase really keeps me anchored in a community now Facebook has become so awful! In

I actually produced a finished image for the title of my puppet film on the last day of 2024, so I'm feeling as if I'm finally achieving something!

Just filmed on the floor of my studio with a camera and software I'd never used before, the final results were "good enough"

This probably isn't really blogworthy, but i thought you'd like to share my small triumph and enthusiasm for the future!

As the Great Chriswell said, 

"Everyone is interested in the future, because it's where you and I will spend the rest of our lives"!

Happy 2025,

 Looey

Oz Base

You don't know Jek...

A Happy Christmas Moonbasers!

I had a great laff at the home- made Xmas card my pal Arnum Endean sent me. As it's pretty SF oriented, so I asked if he minded me sharing it with everyone and he essentially said "Damn the Proton Torpedoes!"

I found his "Bounced Cheque/Jek" pun a little too tortured, but that's my pal Arnum!

Season's Greetings Everyone! 

 Looey

OZ Base

LOOEY'S CHRISTMAS STRIP 2024

Drawn by Looey,

Oz Base!

Enjoy!

LOOEY'S HOME-MADE THUNDERBIRDS AND STAR TREK GUM WRAPPERS .... and MORE!

Hi Woodsy! I was VERY impressed with Norman's ephemera collection. My Captain Scarlet choccy wrappers must be lurking around there too!

I was amused at the scrap booking with Sellotape holding the cherished items on place.

I have just finished my first ever Portrait of my friend Nick Stathopoulos, for the Blue Mountains Portrait Prize this year.

Nick is a Fine Artist, but I've known him since he was just a drooling fanboy and this work celebrates that history.

Here, he is surrounded by his closest friends and all the influences of his childhood ( mostly disaster movies!).

The display box is a mash-up of 1950's Bolland style amusement machines and 1970s style Greek action movie posters!

Of particular interest (maybe to Norman), are some decorations on the sides of the display box. Greek style Thunderbirds and Star Trek gum wrappers, glued down with yellowed Sellotape as if from 50 years ago!

Too bad none of them are real!

Keep on Bloggin' 

 Looey

Oz Base

LOOEY SAYS LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

Riffling through the boxes in my shed, I came across General Vader, uh, sorry, Von Dar!

Bought for the princely remaindered sum of $2!

Also after muttering about Konami Aliens, I came across these big chaps.... 1,2 & 3!

Plus a Zen master!

"We think there may be a... uh, xenomorph involved..."

What do you think?

Looey

Oz Base

LOOEY'S PROPS: GREYSTANES SUPER DRENCHERS!

Enough of the monster stuff! I know you Moonbasers are really only here to see the water pistols I made for Greystanes, the Tik Tok Horror series!

https://www.tiktok.com/@greystanesseries/video/7376509993274592530

The story is set in the 1990's and our young heroine arms herself with a brace of water pistols containing the only substance that can overpower Il Hadiela's Maltese folkloric evil!

Ryan found some contemporary water blasters that looked a bit like period props

 and I modified them to (break copyright) and painted them in retro colours.

For good measure, I took the boxes they came in and covered them in $3 wrapping paper ( did I mention this was a low budget production?) then designed and printed out some period style graphics using my colour laser printer!

To my delight, the boxes feature quite prominently in the establishing shot. so all that Art Department storytelling was put to good use!

I had a great time working on the series, mostly because I got to design and build the Boss Monster!

...and make packaging for water pistols!

Looey

Oz Base

LOOEY'S PROPS: GREYSTANES HORSE SKULL MASK

So, I know this bloke called Ryan Cauchi... He's another Fanboy made good who has produced a number of short Horror films that have had success on the International Film Festival circuit.

I'd previously got a screen credit for providing a prop German helmet for use in the film Golem, that featured a stop motion clay monster putting paid to the Nazis!

Anyway, Ryan contacted me about his new project, a TikTok horror mini series featuring creatures from Maltese folklore and the 1990's period adventure of characters from the Maltese? Australian diaspora.

The main villain is a character called Il Hadiela, who is a vengeful Grandmother, a little like the John Carpenter Halloween villain.

Il Hadiela wears a self-made Horse's skull mask. After a lot of discussion, I suggested that as she is an undead old lady, maybe she's dressed in Victorian style lace clothing and her mask is made from scraps of these clothes.

After some plasticene concept models sculpted over Barbie dolls, I began building the full sized mask using EVA foam sheet cut into strips to mimic basketwork.

As I needed two camera identical outfits, I built them both at the same time, matching every scrap of lace!

This was me out of retirement and into a refreshing return to the low budget collaborations, that I loved so much back on the Ozsploitation Cowboy days of the 80's!

Looey

Oz Base

LOOEY'S PROPS: ALIEN COVENANT SISTRUMS

Hi Woodsy! Your lovely Daleks Blaster project reminded me of a recent project I worked on.

As a bit of a Horror fan yourself, you might appreciate this too!

My swansong in the fillum industry was Alien:Covenant as an ailment made working in a standard movie studio impossible. I got to make a bunch of background musical instrument props for David's Laboratory, which I was able to do from the comfort of my Mountain Hideout. 

The brief was a final reckoning with what the role of Prop Maker has become in today's mechanised production process. I received a sheaf of photo-realistic full colour renderings of what was required. There was no collaboration required, so my only joy in the job was producing objects that were absolutely identical to the illustrations!

Sadly when seen on screen, my final efforts were just out of focus blobs!

Anyway, this is just back story to a much more interesting tale.

How I got to design a monster (and some water pistols!) for the TikTok Horror series Greystanes...

https://www.tiktok.com/@greystanesseries