Original Greeblie
Film-Maker George Lucas coined the term ‘Greeblie’ to describe the small functional looking details that can be seen on the exterior of the STAR WARS spaceship miniatures. typically these details were created by kit-bashing commercially available plastic model kits - tanks and ships are particularly common. But Kit-Bashing really started with the Gerry Anderson TV Series ‘Thunderbirds’. Visual Effects Supervisor Derek Meddings strived to bring a level of credibility to the futuristic aircraft and vehicles seen in the series. By using detail parts from plastic kits of the day, and then weathering the models too, they were able to make the fabulous and fantastic machines appear believable on screen. There were far fewer kits that were suitable back in those days and one that proved especially popular with the Anderson model-makers was the Airfix Girder bridge and every part of this kits appeared on many different models seen in the series. But this strange ‘pyramid’ like block was used more than any other. The original Greeblie,
This video illustrates some of the ingenious ways the Girder Bridge kit was used by Meddings’ VFX team.