The 2026 edition of Heavy Metal Con was held in Pukekohe this weekend, with 17 people attending across the two days of fun, non competitive DBMM in 20-28mm scale.
This year sadly marked the passing of one of HMC's regular stalwarts, Alastair Donald, and in his memory the event was opened with a collective cry of SPARTA!!!!!!!!! A number of players have acquired figures from Al's estate and several games featuring them were played in his honour.
On a happier note, we were pleased to welcome no less than 4 HMC first timers: David Wright, Julian Pinfold, Ian Roberston and Arthur Young. Indeed, for Julian, Ian and Arthur it was their first ever DBMM event!
As to prizes, the coveted "Best Painted" went to Ben Hill for his beautifully executed and highly creative take on the enigmatic Ghurid karwah pavise. Highly commended was newcomer Ian Robertson and his superb French Ordonnance.
"Best Sport" went to another newcomer, Arthur Young, who totally bought into the HMC ethos of getting stuck in and never dying wondering. Win or lose, against Arthur and his Early Poles you knew you'd been in a fight!
HMC uses a curated draw where players are initially invited to pick their opponents, with the rest of the pairings made up around these prearranged matches. This allows for players to set up on-going 'grudge' matches for future years and greatly adds to the fun and banter. While we do keep scores, these merely represent a player's success over the weekend rather than being tournament standings.
This year, a well deserved 3rd Place went to our venue organiser Gerard Lelieveld, 2nd Place to John Calnan and 1st Place to no less than the old grumbler himself, Jurassic Nick Buckby!
The full attendance list was:
Arthur Young
Ben Hill
Benny
David Wright
Gary Lewis
Gerard Lelieveld
Grant Brown
Ian Robertson
John Calnan
Julian Pinford
Mark Caunter
Nick Buckby
Paul Graham
Phil Gates
Richard Foster
Bryan Osbourne (Saturday only)
John Way (Sunday only)
Well that's the wrap for HMC 2026 but enjoy the photos and if you're at a loss for something to do next Labour Day Weekend, it will be all on in Pukekohe again in 2027.
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| The Saturday Morning Assembly. Sadly, your incompetent photographer was unable to capture the actual cry of SPARTA!!!! Shout for Alastair  |
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| A classic historical match up as Julian's Later Macedonians take on Mark's Polybian Romans |
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| Easily the best looking game of the weekend, Ben's Ghurids facing Ian's French Ordonnance. |
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| David's Syracusans included a mass of hoplites from the estate of Al Donald. Here seen facing off with Gary's Dublin Vikings. |
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| A close up of the karwah of Ben's Gurids. As information about the karwah is vague, Ben decided to model them as improvised pavises made of padded cotton and other materials. Some were wheeled, some carried, some brightly painted, others with stitched together hide coverings. The overall effect was both interesting and pleasing. |
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| And Ben's elephants weren't half bad either...... |
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| Also impressive were the chariots of Ben's Early Carthaginians - as featured on the back cover of the recently released updated Book 1 lists! |
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| SPARTA!!!! Grant was fielding Al Donald's beloved Spartans Good on you Grant  |
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And of course the Spartans had to be matched against Paul's Early Achaemenid Persians........Comments |
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| Paul's Babylonian chariots try their luck against the Spartiates. |
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| Gerard's Chinese chariots won Best Painted last year and were back in action this year as well. |
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| South Chinese Tribesman in Gerard's army clash with Mark's Parthians |
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| Arthur's indomitable Early Poles take on Gary's Vikings |
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| The turn of Mark's Polybian Romans (in glorious 20mm plastic) to take on Al's Spartans. |
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| Arthur's Poles again, this time taking on John Way's Later Pre-lslamic Arabs, another typically bloody encounter. Correction o Infdel. Arab Conquest defending the Ummah from the little known Polish Crusade. The LPIA appeared in the afternoon agin the Parthians |
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| Julian's Later Macedonian phalanx crashes into John Calnan's WOTR Blade and Bow combo. |
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| Ian's superb French Ordonnance in action against Gerard's equally eye catching Anglo Irish. |
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