Monday, March 25, 2024

Greebles and Greeblies and Nurnies, oh my!


This post may not be of much interest to the typical Traveller player or referee. It is my collection of Greebles - those bits of technology modellers use to make things like starships more visually interesting. I am making my entire greeble collection available, more than 2,200 models at this point. All were created in SketchUp and the collection is over twenty years in the making. SketchUp users will need at least version 2022 or higher to use them. They can probably be imported into other 3D modelling programs like Blender or Autodesk Fusion, but I can't vouch for how they will perform. Some modification may need to be done to make them work in non-SketchUp software.

I've created four types of greebles: Add-ons, Inserts, Objects, and Decals. See the infographic for a brief explanation. Greebles are included in the linked ZIP files. A book of thumbnails - "The Big Book of Greebles" - has been provided as a reference and in case you want to see what's available before downloading the ZIP files.

Greebling - the act of applying greebles - is an art. Greebles often represent added on technology (like Add-ons) or exposed "under-the-skin" technology, like access panels removed (and abandoned) due to frequent repairs (like Inserts). For Star Wars fans, compare the amount of greebles on the "piece of junk" Millennium Falcon vs. the clean lines of Naboo starcraft. Naboo craft have very little greebling, suggesting they are newer and better maintained. It has been suggested that at most, a ship might be 20-25% detailed greebles, with the remainder of the ship either with not greebles (maybe just hull panel lines) or minimal/simple greebles. Also, the Millenium Falcon is the greatest greebled space ship ever designed. I will fight you if you disagree. :)

Click HERE to download the files.

I'd love to hear from the modelling community how well these work in other software, and see examples of your work using them. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Enjoy!