Greebles, also called greeblies (singular: greebly) [1] or nurnies, are small relief details used to give visual complexity to a model. The act of decorating a model with greebles is known as greebling. While greebling originated as a technique in filmmaking, it is commonly used in model-making, toy design, and kitbashing. [2] [3]
The term "greeblies" was coined by George Lucas in the 1970s to describe details on model ships used in the production of Star Wars . [1] Ron Thornton is credited with coining the term "nurnies" to refer to CGI technical detail that his company Foundation Imaging produced for the Babylon 5 series, [2] while the model-making team of 2001: A Space Odyssey referred to them as "wiggets". [4]
In science-fiction model design, greebles are used to imply mechanical function without necessarily having any real purpose. They may also serve to create an illusion of scale. [5] In the production of Star Wars, many ship models began as simple shapes that were given visual complexity by attaching greebles taken from commercial model kits. [3] Greebling is a common aspect of Lego model design. [6] [7]
