Mud Sweat and Beers!

Looking back over the season here at Armourgeddon, we have had so many great groups of people through our fields and so many great memories. So we thought we would share a few of our favourites with you in this week’s blog.

The Mud!

So this year is said to be the muddiest on record. Hard to believe after the dry second half that we have had and considering previous winters, it’s been pretty so-far-so-good since the cold weather set in too. We wrote to Parliament early this year with a plan to help flood areas with the deployment of amphibious vehicles. Although our comments reached parliament through our local MP, the areas of distress pretty much have to make their own plans, as there is a lack of central support. The exercise was an interesting one, however, and although we hope that the floods of the start of the year are not repeated, at least we have expressed an interest to help get aid and rescue options to those in need should the situation arise.

The mud was also great fun here on at Armourgeddon. The track certainly got put through its paces in the first half of the year. One Monday 3 diggers were deployed to put it all back together after a particularly wet weekend. That said, some of our instructors prefer wet days for tank paintball battle. They say that dealing with the tanks in the rain adds to the entertainment for the customers who come to learn to manage them. It certainly adds to the entertainment value for the passengers and with that much steel above your head, you certainly aren’t going to get wet!

The Wedding Shoot

Back at the start of the summer, we had Mr & Mrs Magazine in the museum here on site for a photo shoot to showcase retro military weddings. The theme was around World War II but with a nod towards the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI. The makeup and clothes were spectacular and the backdrop of our tanks and military vehicles played really well to set the scene.

We have never held a wedding reception here on site, but never say never… there is certainly the space!

The 256th Wiganski Regiment

Year on year the 256th Wiganski Regiment visit Armourgeddon with their full dress uniforms, Russian marching music blaring to announce their arrival and a whole day of clipped Russian speech. This was the 9th annual visit of our most revered customers of the year. This year the vodka in the water guns was replaced with water and the target was for a perfect score in their Tank Paintball Battle. Perhaps cruelly, the newest instructor of the Armourgeddon team, Joe, was given the task of working with the Regiment for this year’s visit. Once he had been accepted, squirted and re-named, the crew were off.

They managed their perfect score of 10 in the battle, but were matched by their opponents. We are already looking forward to their next visit- the 10th and hopefully biggest yet! See you soon, Sargent Bigckstly and your crew!

Fame!

This year has also seen us become stars of the big screen and (in a round-about way), the small screen too!

The Sherman tank from Armourgeddon, expertly driven by Stuart, is one of the tanks in the new Brad Pitt move, Fury. The team all headed to the cinema to watch their beloved Sherman make it’s debut and cheered as they saw Stuart maneuver the beast as directed by David Ayer. The film has had rave reviews and, in our opinion, that is completely and totally down to the way Stuart managed to navigate our Sherman! Nothing to do with the star-studded cast of exceptional actors in Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and John Isaacs. No, of course not!

Next up, Top Gear came to town pitting the newest ranges of 4×4 road candy against our FV432s on the tracks at Armourgeddon. It was a dusty affair with a camera man strapped to the back of the tank being chased by the 4×4 vehicles whist they were shot at by paintball guns… all in a day’s work!

The Rest

Then there were the corporate groups from far and wide and even groups of blind tank drivers who were an inspiration to the team here. We’ve had visits from Facebook, Caterpillar, Banks, international sales teams and various military magazines who have all left delighted with their day.

We could go on for much longer with stories of hen and stag groups, High School groups from the USA, the individuals who come to celebrate birthdays and Christmas, the kids who have their parties and the scouts who visit the museum… but we know you have Christmas presents to wrap, more cards to write, drinks parties to visit and fun to have.

But if you are stuck for that brilliant gift idea… It’s not too late to buy a gift voucher for tank paintball! It’s never too late for that!