Chris’ Canadian Army

Chris’ Canadian Army with Chris Townley Let me start out by saying I have no idea why I really wanted to build a Canadian Army for Team Yankee. I’ve never really read much about the modern (or WW2) Canadian Armed Forces, but something just called out to me when we got our first casts of the original resin and metal Leopard 1.

There was some very appealing about it and I started thinking about the forces that used this widely exported tank. Then of course it hit me; Leopard 1 ADATS Maple Syrup… Canadians, job done!

So, way back when I started building the army there wasn’t even any real discussion about adding the Canadians (or the Aussies, French or Dutch) to the game. They were on a list of things the guys in the Studio wanted to do but that list is really long and we can only do so much at any one time. Rather than wait though I started thinking about how I could go about working on part of an army so grabbed enough resin and metal Leopard 1 tanks and some M113 APCs to build the core of an army.

Fast forward 12 months (or so) and Wayne is working on the framework for Free Nations, Evan has started on a NATO forces range of infantry and Tim is working on the plastic Leopard 1… and I still haven’t started painting anything (oops). With a book on the actual design plan I took this as an opportunity to tidy up some projects that had been lurking around and then actually get started on my army. First up was doing a little research and bugging Aaron about which colours to use in painting the force.

Research I ended up spending a fair amount of time looking at a couple of websites. Canadian Soldiers - https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/ This is a great site for learning about the Canadian Army in the 20th Century, obviously covering both WW2 and the 1980’s Team Yankee period. Armoured Acorn This was (I say was as it just disappeared overnight whilst we were working on the project) an amazing site filled with great painting information covering Canadian vehicles and their various schemes. Since this site is no longer available we will be adding painting guide information for the 1980s to the website soon. First Clash - a novel by Kenneth Macksey  Slight white lie, I haven’t actually read First Clash (yet) nor is it a website, but it is on my list and based on what I’ve heard if you are keen on fielding a Canadian force in Team Yankee, then this is some great reading.

Painting Thanks to Aaron sorting out the colours was fairly simple, and thanks to Armoured Acorn and watching a fair amount of YouTube content (put that in my Timesheet as “Research”  I was able to sort out some painting guides. Canadian vehicles, much like West German and US forces have templated camouflage templates where each vehicle of a type has the same scheme/placement. Unlike my US force I decided to just freehand all the camo with an airbrush rather than making templates.
	If you would like to see the lengths that Chris has gone to to paint camouflage templates in the past on his American Team Yankee force then you can check out this article here which details some of his efforts making paper and blu-tac masks. Check out Chris’ MERDC templates here…
So, models are under control, painting plan determined, now time to start noodling a list out.

Leopard C1 Armoured Squadron   Leopard C1 Armoured Squadron HQ 10 Points Leopard C1 (x 3)   Leopard C1 Armoured Troop 13 Points Leopard C1 (x 4)    Leopard C1 Armoured Troop 13 Points Leopard C1 (x 4)    Leopard C1 Armoured Troop 13 Points Leopard C1 (x 4)    Leopard C1 Armoured Troop 13 Points Leopard C1 (x 4)    M113 Mechanized Platoon 7 Points C2 SAW Team with M72 anti-tank  (x 3)    Carl Gustav anti-tank team (x 3)   C5 GPMG team (x 1)   M19 60mm mortar team (x 1)   M113 (x 4)   Lynx Recce Patrol 2 Points Lynx (x 2)    Lynx Recce Patrol 2 Points Lynx (x 2)    M150 TOW Anti-tank Section 4 Points M150 TOW (x 3)

Brigade Group Support   ADATS Air Defence Platoon 10 Points ADATS missile Launcher (x 4)   M113 Blowpipe Air Defence Platoon 4 Points M114 Blowpipe

West German Support   Tornado Strike Flight 8 Points Tornado (x 4)

Annoyingly I’ve only painted four models as I didn’t think that six was going to be an option in the book. Of course, six is an option so now I have to go back and get two more. Oh, the hardship!

List sorted, models sorted, painting plan sorted.

Fast forward a few more months and thanks to doing a little painting work for the book and my army is actually largely complete. I still have a few things to do, my Leopards are 50% complete but only need a couple of serious hobby days to finish them. My APCs and other support vehicles are finished barring the addition of a couple of decals and a little airbrush dusting. The infantry are all complete, throw in some vehicle crews and the army will be done. I think this might be a record for me, nearly finishing an army before the book comes out! ~Chris