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

Homemade Terrain - Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Howdy folks,

Picking up from my last post. I have since been able to finish all of the scratch-built trees and terrain. All in all, there are 16 x 4 inch tree stands, 16 x individual trees, and 6 x treeline segments approximately 6 inches in length. Within all of this, there are over 105 trees, 16 coaster, 6 strips of MDF, and a large number of wooden tokens. Not to mention the homemade basing compound, the overlay using AK diorama mud compound, and half a can of dullcote.

The process was somewhat involved. The trees that I got from Temu did not come with bases...very annoying, but I did get about 70+ trees for about $40...I took some wooden tokens or chips that I got from the DollarStore and drilled into the middle so that I could use these as individual bases for the trees and also on the strips and stands. The 4 inch coasters were a bit of a gamble, in that I wasn't sure how durable they would be, but I needed a quick low cost solution. As I was putting the compound on them, which had a fair amount of water in it, I figured that given they were coasters that they should be able to handle any moisture without warping. 

Happy to report that they did not in fact warp.

Anyhow, after I put the base compound and AK diorama mix on, I then used a layer of Cinnamon Brown crafters paint. I then did a drybrush layer of Territorial Beige...which turned out okay, but wasn't overly pumped by it. I took a semi wet/dry brush layer to the overly beiged up parts using Vallejo Beige Brown. Surprisingly, this did not take a large amount of paint to rectify. I then took some Vallejo Stonewall Grey (I think) and painted up some rocky elements to give the eyes something else to look at. I followed this up with some Army Painter Soft Tone to accentuate the rocky features and give some light variation in some of the recesses of the basework and then hit everything with a very dry brush of Vallejo Tan Earth.

Very satisfied with the result, I then took everything outside to the sunny 18 degree day we were having and zapped it all with a matte overcoat. This was to give some protection to the base, but also some stability to some of the trees. Surprisingly, the Michaels trees were somewhat 'foamy' and some pieces were coming off, so I was hoping the dullcote would seal the materials in.

Here are the pics...next stop, the gaming table.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         36    

28mm+       16

Terrain      +38, 38 pieces of terrain 

  

Bought        0

Progress   +90

CanGames Prep - Scatter Terrain and a Buttload of Trees

Howdy folks,

We are sitting at just under a month until this years CanGames (https://cangames.ca/) in Ottawa. I decided to throw my hat in the ring for running a table this year and while I took some time to settle on a ruleset and setting, I realized afterwards that I would have to get moving on prepping things up. I hadn't played Team Yankee in some time, and I had a few models kicking around that I could paint up (cough cough, horde!), so I thought I could give a shot at TY. At the same time, I didn't want to settle on a traditional TY or Flames of War fight and instead dove into the Tank Aces Campaign and rules from a bunch of years ago for a solution.

I liked the idea of running a standard table with a reduced number of forces, and I also like the Force on Force (FoF) ruleset, but at the same time I didn't want to get too bogged down in rules and minutia. I really just wanted to focus on having models on the table. So, Tank Aces will give me the chance to whittle the force structure down to more of a FoF friendly size, and using Tank Aces, I will be able to have folks move around as independent teams and all that comes with that nuance. Anywho, maybe more on that later or in another post.

So, I had the setting - Cold War (which was where my original FoF thoughts were going) - I did a deep dive google search into table layouts (found some eye-candy and great looking tables at Sparkers Wargaming page), and took them as inspiration. That meant that I had to finally beef-up and invest in some scatter terrain that I could be proud of.

Again, going to google, I tried looking for something similar to what Battlefront offers, but the price point was a little much for me at the moment...and, the biggest consideration, every site I looked at had the Pine Woods or similar tree terrain sold out. Well that kinda solved the concerns about the cost...

So, DIY/Scratchbuild time! I ended up buying an assortment of trees from Temu and Michaels…over 100 of them. I picked up some coasters to base the trees from Michaels along with some regular felt pieces (12x9 inch and 12x18 inch) and some textured felt, which would be great for some farmers fields.

I made up a mixture of sand, pva glue, drywall compound, hearty craft paint, and some water. It made a pretty solid mortar for the bases and it didn’t take much to tidy up the bases with a second application. 

Next step is the painting and dry brushing. Cheers.

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