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Stebloke

Greetings. I am Stebloke, and I am a bit strange. This website contains my blog, where you can read about the things I create, the games I play, and any other things I get involved in.

I make this blog mostly because I like to look back on the things I do and feel nostalgic, but also because it motivates me to keep doing things outside of my otherwise boring and mundane existence.

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Stebloke's Website ©2008-2025

7th February 2025: Branching Out

In the background, my forest-making journey has continued.

While I already had some stuff I could use as new trees, as well as some weird-lookin' 3D-printable plants, I was inspired last year to try and scratch build my own when I came across the Karl Makes Stuff Youtube channel.

In one of his vids, he makes some simple and effective looking trees using wire and twine, and I thought I'd give it a go.

I wasn't happy with my first try, so it went in the bin. But a while later, armed with this experience, I set up to have another go with a better idea of what to do.

Karl makes trees<br /><span class='skye'>(Youtube video)</span>

Karl makes trees
(Youtube video)

My scruffy first attempt

My scruffy first attempt

Setting up for a proper go

Setting up for a proper go

While not perfect, I was much happier with what came out of this little session. Then I just had to wait for the temperatures to get a little milder so that I could get some spray cans out and give them a blast.

I sprayed them each with different colours, using different combinations from below and above, so that there would be a bit of variety.

They're not particularly natural looking tree colours, but they are for sci-fi games so they can be whatever colours I want.

Not looking too bad for a proper attempt

Not looking too bad for a proper attempt

Got a bunch of twizzling done

Got a bunch of twizzling done

After spraying some crazy colours

After spraying some crazy colours

At this point, I still have no idea whether this is all going to work. I need to flock them with some "leaves" first, but to do that, I've got to make myself a bunch of crazy-coloured flock...

27th January 2025: Nothing To Goff At

After my shambolic efforts at painting my Epic Evil Sunz, which took well over four years, an opportunity soon arose to try and right the ship somewhat.

This month, work has been very light, so I had an opportunity to dig my heels in and really try to get something done. Much like what I attempted with the Epic Androids a couple of years ago, I decided to start a project from scratch and try and smash the entire thing out in the time I had available.

My choice this time was another Ork clan, which was the Goffs. Perhaps I was being a bit silly trying to paint such a force in a single month. Yes, they are about half the size of the Evil Sunz, but one month is a far smaller amount of time than four years.

And on top of that, this clan included my other Mega Gargant.

What led me to choosing these ladz over some of my other models is that the Goffs predominantly wear black, a colour I think works by simply drybrushing it a dark grey then throwing a black wash over the top. Couple this with the fact that they were already undercoated in black and ready to go, I figured a huge chunk of the work could be done with very little effort.

I wasn't going to paint the green skin or white accents before the black wash, as I didn't want to muddy them. But it didn't take long to get all of the small models drybrushed grey, and get their red accents and metallic weapons all painted, so that I could get them washed. Just a few days through the month and in my head it felt like I was flying along.

I got the Stompas and Gibletgrinda to the same point, and then ran straight into a brick wall when the Mega Gargant rolled up to the painting area.

This thing was in a right state. There was still a lot of flashing to remove and filing to do, and bits had even fallen off since it had last been used back in the 1990s. Man, we really should have taken better care of this stuff back in the day.

Getting the Nobz and Battlewagons ready for their wash

Getting the Nobz and Battlewagons ready for their wash

The big Goffs need some attention

The big Goffs need some attention

Some progress. But is it enough?

Some progress. But is it enough?

I decided to stick with the gargant until it was completed, and it wasn't until nearly two weeks later that I could go back to the other models.

Something interesting with this lot is that these are the first 6mm infantry models I've ever painted that are on the Epic 40,000 "strip" style bases, rather then the classic square bases from the previous version of the game.

These other bases certainly make the models easier to paint, but they are so much worse in every other way. For a start, I much prefer the look of the old bases, how they make the models look like they are in a squad rather than just in a line.
Square bases also look better when they are "clumped up" for photos in my opinion.

Also, the long, thin profile of the strip bases seemingly makes them susceptible to bending. It's weird, but some of them just don't sit flat at all. All these years have gone by and I've only just realised this.

Skumsplatta's new paint job well on the way

Skumsplatta's new paint job well on the way

Wobblin' all over the world<br /><span class='skye'>(webm video)</span>

Wobblin' all over the world
(webm video)

Vehicles all finished

Vehicles all finished

By half way through the month I was flagging big time. I wanted nothing more than to move on and play a computer game, or do anything else, but I just kept thinking about all of the painting delays I've had, and really needed this to be a challenge I didn't fail.

So I trudged on, and happily managed to put down the brush on Jan 26th, a whole 5 days early. Yeah sure, I didn't try as hard with these as I did with the Evil Sunz, and I still needed to flock the bases, but I'm classing this as a major win.

I've checked my little paint tracker spreadsheet, and I have noticed that if I paint another similar-sized clan such as the Deathskulls, I will be exactly 50% through all of my Epic models. So while I should probably get straight on with that, I think I really need a break from painting Orks for a while...


So it's 4 clans down, and 3 to go. This one was painted in record time, for me anyway.

It's definitely good to get the Goffs done, to give my painted force some much needed close combat crunchin' capability.

All the Goffs, ready for krumpin'

All the Goffs, ready for krumpin'

The Goff clan line up for war

The Goff clan line up for war

Mega Gargant Skumsplatta rolls into action

Mega Gargant Skumsplatta rolls into action

Let's get even more stompy

Let's get even more stompy

Some Goff war machines

Some Goff war machines

31st December 2024: Could I Have Done A Whole Lot More In Twenty Twenty Four?

Yes, it's time for another pointless look back at the year, where I allow myself to waffle on about what I managed to get done and what I didn't.

When compared to the time I had available, I feel like 2024 has been my best year for the most consistent progress, without having any massively impressive progress in any one area.
Indeed, there has been double the blog activity this year compared to last, which can't be a bad sign.

Computer Games

I managed 10 completions this year, plus two much needed replays. This is pretty much the minimum amount I want to get through in a year, but ideally I'd like at least several more.

The main downside with my completion numbers is that only 4 of these new completions were PC games. As I have so many more PC games to get through compared to other platforms, I really need to do better in this area.

What I didn't realise last year was that Guardians Of The Galaxy was my 99th completed game since starting the blog. Had I noticed that, I probably would have made it my mission to complete a worthwhile game later in the year to be number 100. As it is, Treasure Island Dizzy picked up that accolade completely by accident. Oh well.

I didn't really set myself any specific targets for the year, except for FF7: Rebirth and replaying FF8, both of which I managed. The original intent was to go straight into a replay of Rebirth, but it never happened. Indeed, the PS5 spent the vast majority of the year stuffed into the loft, a place it has now returned to. Had it not been for Stellar Blade, there would have been no need for it.
Also, it's just such a big, clunky, ugly looking thing that I'm not just gonna leave it lying around if it has no purpose.

I was originally on schedule for finishing a few really big games later in the year, but my momentum was hampered by failing to get through Mad Max. Now some time has passed, I think I might actually go back to it and try again at some point, rather than let it sit on the unfinished pile.

Resident Evil 0 still sits waiting for me to play. I got my map to about 95% done just from watching vids, and now I just need to play it myself and confirm some things.
The thing is, it was so long ago I can't remember what those things were, and I just really don't fancy playing it at all. Those vids made the game look very boring and frustrating.

I did unfortunately fail in quite a big way, because another 31 new games joined the list this year. Just 7 of them were freebies from Epic Games, so a lot of spending was going on as well. Hopefully, I can have a 2025 more like 2023, and not pick up so many other games.

As I sit here, I really can't think of any specific goals that need to happen next year, except maybe that Rebirth replay at some point. Maybe I should just have a year where I really focus on Windows games and rattle off as many as I can manage.

Tabletop Games

There was quite frequent tabletop action all through the year, though wargaming took a massive back seat to board games, where it was easily the biggest board game year since the explosion we had back in 2016.
To be fair, I highly doubt that year will be topped, as we had so many games nights, frequently with 8 or more people. It was wild.

The highlights were going to a board game cafe for the first time, as well as finally getting to play a proper game of Detective. Late in the year, we even got Dune: Imperium to the table, which has been waiting for its time to shine for several years at this point. It was silly indeed, not getting around to playing it, when it was by far the highest rated game we own on BoardGameGeek.

In addition, I was able to aquire copies of two of my long term board game crushes, in Jamaica and a proper version of Whitehall Mystery at last. Good times.

Wargaming opportunities were very scarce. Yes, we played 40K-S for the first time, but that was it. No other game was played at all. I'm most disappointed that no Epic-S hit the tabletop.

Even my journey down the road of terrain making failed to see any accomplishments of note. There were just too many pot holes, of various sizes, along the way, and all my efforts went in vain.

There were a few sporadic painting efforts early in the year, but far less than I normally manage. And then, once again, the summer was an absolute bust on this front.
The big win of the year came just this week, when I finished off my Epic Evil Sunz.

It's taking me longer to paint things these days, but I think it's mostly because I'm putting in more effort. And this year, I've been glad of the progress I've made in terms of skill, if not volume.
I find myself really happy with the Callidus Assassin, and the Evil Sunz Nobz are easily the best Epic infantry I've ever done.

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