Cangames 2026 - Random Table Shots

Howdy folks,

As has been tradition for myself for sometime now, the past weekend was attendance at Cangames time! A great way to pass the long weekend, and this year was no exception, in fact I think the Con was even better this year. Not only did I build up the courage (and fight procrastination) to run a game, it was fully attended and then some...more on that in a later post.

This post is all about the 'random' table shots that I was able to grab...the games and tables that I was able to fit in between the schedule. It felt like there was an increase in games overall, and the miniature table top was no different in that respect. There were some classic, some that I wasn't familiar with, and some new favourites.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Force on Force (FoF) has become somewhat of a classic staple at Cangames, and there ware folks who travel from abroad to make it just for the FoF. Chris ran another scenario this year, I wasn't able to get in on the game, but this one looks like a different setting compared to years past. Chris runs his FoF in 20mm scale and always has a very dynamic scenario for players.

Ed and Andrew came in from the Maritimes for the day and topped it off with running a 15mm Rapid Fire Ost Front scenario. I tried this one out last year, and really liked the ruleset. I think this scenario is a similar Soviet push against German defenses, but in this case was a little more dynamic with added defense in depth that challenged both players to maximize resources and priorities - do the Sov's get bogged down in mop up or push for the objective prioritizing the threat; do the Germans commit all at once or whittle the Sov's down.

Michael Ball and The Face of Battle was a staple in my 'early' years of attending Cangames, and while he had taken a break from the Con, last year he returned with version 2 of his ruleset. His table is always a treat to look at. I believe he runs his games at 20mm, and in this case we're looking at D-Day-esque adventures.

Last year, Duncan had run a Korean War scenario with B-29's getting bounced hard by North Korean Migs...it was an excellent scenario, and he brought it back this year. The table was pretty straight forward and lots of top gun excitement by everyone. This is the Mig Alley expansion to Blood Red Skies by Warlord Games. The models are great, and hey...who doesn't love a good air combat game?

Chris also ran a couple of serials of The Walking Dead in 28mm. Again, a very popular setting and a lot of fun was had by folks.

Brian always runs a game or two at the Con. This year he had a Pirates inspired game, not sure the ruleset, but the minis looked excellent.

Painting Update - Soviet Tanks and (more…) Cangames Prep

Howdy everyone,

I hope all is well on your side of the internets. We are slowly getting our way into Spring, although we’ve had a few frost warnings, so those always seem to get folks horrified and whatnot. So Cangames is a few days away, and admittedly the last few weeks have been rather busy, I haven’t had much chance to get to game planning until the last day or so…

The general idea of my game is to take the Tank Aces campaign from Flames of War and adapt it to the Team Yankee mid80’s timeframe. I have plenty of NATO and Warsaw PACT forces, and my recent bout of painting has helped that out. To fill out the ranks a little, I did manage to finish some Soviet or Czech T64’s…depending on your flavour. 

I wanted to try something a little more unique with these tanks and did a bit of a deep dive google search for painting schemes for Soviet tanks. I then focused on T64 tanks and I found a bunch of colour plates with a variety of green schemes. However, I struck paydirt when I saw reference to the Soviet version of US MERDC. The colour plates looked pretty cool, and I found a few other reference pics…so, I was sold…I ended up going that way for my T64’s. I ended up going with Vallejo Reflective Green for the base, and then Saddle Brown along with Tan Earth for the other colours. I hit them with Army Painter StrongTone, and then again with a wet layer of the 3 colours which let me get some hard-edge camo effects the scheme.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the results. Enjoy the pics.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         44, +8 (tanks + crew)

28mm+       16

Terrain      +38

  

Bought        0

Progress   +98

Painting Update - Horde of Team Yankee Americans

Howdy everyone,

 

Whether you are in the midst of spring or the [alleged] last storm of winter, I hope that all is well on your respective sides. I have been rocking the best of both seasons, although I have not had any of the big snowfalls that other folks have been experiencing...which is both great and horrible all at the same time.

 

I have been taking it somewhat easy over the last few weeks, enjoying some time off from work...and while I have and have not accomplished anything, I have at the very least worked my way through a number of vehicles that were sitting on the painting table waiting their turn for the brush. Between picking up starter boxes that were well priced (the first release of the Complete Starter Set and Ryan's Leathernecks) or supporting local gaming stores on my travels, I had amassed a bit of a small-ish horde of vehicles for Team Yankee.

 

Over my time off, I was able to paint up the 6 Humvees from the Leathernecks box, the M1 Abrams and the Bradley's from the Compete Starter Set, and a box of Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. This also gave me a chance at trying my hand at the M81 Woodland camo pattern for US uniforms. I am pretty happy with the results of the uniforms and have a Rifle Platoon to get to next...and the vehicles, I painted most of them in the MERDC pattern that I had used prior, and did 2 Bradley's and 2 Abrams in straight green no camo...having looked at a wide variety of images, I thought the mix would work. And certainly it helps in distinguishing small units on the table...and the green vehicles can work well for Red Dawn type, as in my mind green feels more continental-US.

 

Anywho, I'm very happy with how they all turned out. Enjoy the horde of photos to go along with this.

 

Cheers.

The horde…enough kit to field an understrength M1 Armoured Combat Team with multiple Bradley recon teams and Humvee recce support.

The Bradley’s…M2A2/M3A3’s with a pair of M2/M3’s…enough for 3 support teams for the M1’s or enough for their own Armoured Cavalry Troop (with M1 support).

Some Humvees on parade…enough for a couple of Scout sections.

Some M1’s…can combine with the previous couple I had painted up for a small core formation.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         36, +27 (crew and vehicles)    

28mm+       16

Terrain        0

  

Bought        0

Progress   +52

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting Update - Russian BMP/BRM 1's

Hello everyone,

I hope the day is finding you all well...the freezing rain that was supposed to hit us seems to have stayed south and/or just avoided our area all together. 

 

This is another post showing off some more 3D printed items from my buddy Duncan. He gave me a few printed BMP's to try out and throw some paint on. Admittedly, I've had them a while, but working through the palette cleanser, they made it to the painting table. I had to do a little work with the turrets as they were a little tight...I ended up filing/cutting down the turret ring on the hull of the vehicles and bringing the turret themselves down a little. It didn't take too much work, and they are now fairly free.

 

The BMP's themselves are the reconnaissance variant, the BRM and in this case the BRM 1. I'm not too overly worried on complete accuracy for how I'm going to employ them on the field, but from an OCD perspective they have a variety of subtle differences between the BMP and BRM. In terms of where these models will go, I think they will more than likely fit in the Imagi-nation world and probably find a home in Afropia as one of a number of potential belligerents for the Petoriastan Defence Force (PDF).

 

Anywho, they painted up fairly quickly and the 3D resin took the paint really well. I ended up having to snag a couple of Soviet crewmembers from my Team Yankee pile and cut them down as 2 of the BMP/BRM's had the drivers hatch open...so in went a crewmember.

 

Overall, the prints weren't too bad. I ended up snapping part of the tracks off and then gluing and refusing them to the hull...it worked well and looks like they should have the strength to stand up to the 'war'.  

 

Enjoy the pics. 

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm           9, +5    

28mm+       16

Terrain        0

  

Bought        0

Progress   +25

 

 

Painting Update - Soviet Gaz 66 Utility Trucks

Hello Everyone,

I hope that all is going well on your respective side of the internet. We are in a fairly slow weather transition here between winter-spring-winter-almost spring-more winter; we have had some fairly warm temps and some fairly not so warm temps with about a 30-40 degree swing and maybe a bit more if you count windchill.

Regardless, the paint has been rolling on. I wanted to share this quick post with you to highlight some 3d printed models that I received from Duncan some time ago. I had actually painted one of them up really quickly to see how they would handle the paint - and then I promptly forgot about the other three. So, I totally rectified that last week and finished them up.

I like the mix of models that I received. Each truck is sporting a different load with only one of them having the full canvased back for troop hauling or other somesuch. The others are much more about the cargo, and one of them has nothing in the back so I can make up some random cargo loads...or technical gun mounts, should I choose. I did paint them up in a mix of civilian and military paint scheme and I think they will suit very well for Cold War and/or imagi-nations.

Enjoy the pics.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm           4, +4    

28mm+       16

Terrain        0

  

Bought        0

Progress   +20