With the season well and truly open, all the tanks in great working order and a diary full to bursting with tank driving dates, it’s just the track at Armourgeddon causing us sleepless nights at the moment!

That said, once the bulldozer had removed a huge boulder and flattened some of the steeper ravines that trekking FV432s through the mudfest have caused over recent weeks, we are back to business as usual at Southfields Farm.

April was a month of the stag group this year with groups heading to Armourgeddon from far and wide. When the location means easy accessibility within an hour from Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham and Northampton or just 30 minutes from Leicester, it’s clear to see why. With a huge offering of mud/ gun/ tank based activities to choose from, a stag day at Armourgeddon with the mates who have been around since the first time round rolling around in the mud, is an obvious choice.

Whilst the start of the season has been busy, the rain has caused us a certain amount of grief and a number of dates have been rescheduled to hopefully sunnier weeks ahead.

We have a few new faces in the team this season and as ever, their day-jobs are rather diverse. Alex is the son of Armourgeddon’s owners, Stuart and Tracy, studying for his A’Levels at school, with his driving test coming up, has tank oil in his veins! Recently trained and signed off as an Instructor, Alex also heads up Armourgeddon Airsoft.

Bambie (Dave to his friends and family) is a gamekeeper and deerstalker in his spare time, again recently completed his training and now working with crews on the Armourgeddon track.

Louis (actually Richard) was passed off in his training last weekend. Having previously been a Challenger II trainer as a vehicle mechanic in the British Army, he is a handy guy to have around. Responsible for communications, he set up radio control systems for mission critical exercises.

Andy (actual name Andy…) is one of the organisers of Wickstead at War is a re-enactor in his free time. A Captain in the Army Reserves, Andy is very knowledgeable about the military and flew through his training, passed as an Instructor ready for the start of the season- before the mud really set in!

Dickie (Richard) owns a Chieftain, which sits in the museum at Armourgeddon. As a tank owner, we expected big things in training and Dickie did not disappoint. An IT consultant for his day job, driving tanks at the weekend is quite the diversion from mainframes and servers!

Joe (in need of an Armourgeddon nickname..) is our newest recruit and still at the start of his training. A McDonalds trainee manager, Joe is working hard to get to grips with what instructing is all about. With the track in the state that it is in presently, if he can master instructing crews at the moment, he can do anything at Armourgeddon! From an airsoft and paintballing background, Joe is looking for less pain in his new role as the paintballs are directed at the tanks rather than his body!

Champo AKA Fireman Sam (real name Matt) is also an Instructor in training between his shifts as in the Leicestershire Fire Brigade. Again, quickly getting to grips with the commands and requirements of the Instructor role, we headed out with Champo on a training run this morning.

The training session today included instructing the maneuvering of an FV432 around both the top and bottom tracks at Southfields Farm as well as pulling up in the shooting practice position and reversing. Managing the tank is one thing… managing someone driving a tank for the first time is something else. Champo did a great job though and the YouTube videos of his trip are linked below.

So there you have it. Lots of familiar faces and a splattering of new ones ready to take all this season’s tank drivers through their paces. With some of our regular customers booked again including our favourite Crazy Russians (not actually Russian, obviously) we are looking forward to having plenty of stories to tell as the season progresses. To those already booked, we are looking forward to seeing you! To those thinking about booking, what are you waiting for? What better way to spend a day out than blasting round our tracks in a battle tank or a WWII vehicle shooting paintballs out of canons at your enemy vehicles from the safety of your very own tank!