Newbie Question: Greebles and Model Parts

[Gulywhumpr]

Hi everyone, I am sorry for posting what may be a really dumb question, but I have looked for the answer and could not find anything. I have seen people reference taking some parts from various models (cars, planes, etc) and using these parts for their greebles when building a comm badge, or a Boushh helmet, for example. My questions are: 1. do people take parts from model kits to build up the various greeble details on Star Wars costumes (or any costume), and 2. If so, how do you know what model you need to obtain such a greeble part - is there a website that has detailed photos of what model parts come in all the models (for example, a website with photos of the parts from a 57 Chevy model), or do you just buy a model and hope it has something useable? Thank you for any help. I have no idea about this and can't even begin to search the RPF for this subject because I don't even know what the subject is called.

 

[superjedi]

Welcome, and that's a good question!
Many (most) of the physical models or props created for the SW films were built by adding kit parts for details.
The technique is known as kitbashing.
If you take a look through the Studio Scale modeling forum, you'll find some threads that have to do with the
model kit parts that were added to certain ships and vehicles. If you search for the terms "part map" or "parts map"
you'll probably find several threads where people have put in a lot of research and created images showing what
model parts were added to specific ships like the Falcon.
Also in the Studio Scale modeling forum, the 3rd "stuck" post at the very top of the forum has a list of kit scans.
There are many pics of individual (unbuilt) model kits that people have taken photos of, showing what parts can be
found in which kits.
There are other sites that have kit scans, too. This is one of them that centers on the Falcon:
http://www.studioscale.com/kitscans.htm

Enjoy!

 

[Gulywhumpr]

Thank you so much! This is exactly the information I was missing. You have helped a lot, now I can find information on my own.

 

[Darth Lars]

Because many model kits have been out of production for a long time, for many prop replicas and costumes it is much more common to use casts in resin.
There are people and vendors who specialize in particular costumes. If you need a more unusual greeblie, then the model kit might be the only source.
An original part would also be preferable if you are building something intended to be cast.

The old site The Parts of Star Wars has information about the greeblies for many physical props. However the site hasn't been updated that much in recent years so some info is missing or perhaps even wrong. There is more recent info on their Facebook page.

And BTW, the correct word is "greeblie", alternatively "greebly". The word is an old English slang word for "indeterminable small things" like you would find in places that haven't been cleaned in a while: things such as bugs, breadcrumbs, pilling etc. It has been used for a long time by model builders, and it was apparently prop miniature builders that brought the term into prop-making. The use of "greeble" is at most fifteen years old and likely from misreading (not mishearing) the word being used in prop-making. The misspelled word seems to be more used among CGI artists.
I also read it wrong when I was a n00b here.