As well as our Tank Paintball Battle and Military Vehicle Driving Experience season, we are one of the UKs leading tank and military vehicle Restoration bases; finding tanks from far a field and restoring them to their former glory for our museum, for starring roles in blockbuster movies and for private collectors alike.

Our first foray into the world of tank restoration was a collection of five M8 Armoured Cars that we found in a scrap yard in Greece. Don’t be fooled though, finding and transporting tanks, as we were soon to find out, is a minefield of red tape and paperwork, and there are many painful and untrustworthy transportation ‘specialists’ out there that cause delay or even confiscation of goods.

After we cut our restoration teeth on the M8s, we turned our eye to a much bigger project, a huge project- our biggest to date, the restoration of our Sherman Tank. Everyone loves a Sherman, and when we found one owned by a private collector in Belgium in the summer of 2010, we snapped it up and (again through the pain, torture and skilled maneuvers of red-tape-management), our Sherman arrived at Armourgeddon just before Christmas of that same year. The restoration to former glory of this beast amongst tanks took 18 months from start to finish. Our rare Sherman is one of the finest examples of these wonderful machines worldwide. She is now used for the movies and as a standout piece of rare tank-royalty in our museum.

After the restoration of an M3A1 Scout Car, an Opel Blitz an Opel Olympia- the Marilyn Monroe of our collection and star of Saving Private Ryan, along came our Citroen U23, originally built by the French for the German occupying army, in desperate need of a complete overhaul.

We have also restored an Alvis Stalwart and two T34s; one we sold almost immediately to a private collector in Belgium. We presently have three beasts in the workshop: a Sexton Tank, a Chieftain and a Half Track.

Similarly to the Sherman, the Sexton has required a complete nut and bolt strip down to be brought back to former glory. A 12-month job so far, we are still working on this project.

The Chieftain FV4201, one of which shares the workshop with our Sexton, was the main battle tank of the UK during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

The Chieftain introduced a supine driving position- reclining backwards, for the first time to the development of tanks. This position enables a heavily sloped hull with reduced height. A tank faster than the Centurion and able to maintain its speed longer than the Leopard I and able to out-gun its contemporaries, the Chieftain was also the first tank to enhance its amour- which was already superior to many of others.

The Chieftain came from a company called Bastion. They are the makers of a specific type of sand bag and mesh wall system. It’s that type of wall, which encompasses the periphery of the UK forces base in Hellmand Province, Afghanistan, hence the name Camp Bastion.

Our Sexton arrived on site at Armourgeddon over four years ago where it has spent most of its time in the museum in its original state- seriously rusty!

The wheel stations were removed back in February 2015 when we predicted an 8-month turn around to have the Sexton ready for show. The time has slipped us by having had a busy year this last 12-months. But the Sexton has been back at the top of the list since the New Year.

The Sexton was based on Canadian-built versions of the M3 Lee and M4 Sherman tanks which entered production in Canada as the Ram and Grizzly in order to provide better artillery support in the highly mobile desert warfare of the North African Campaign.

The British Army quickly adapted a number of obsolete Valentine tanks with 25-pounder guns and introduced them as the Bishop. However, significant issues in service around a lack of room for elevation of the gun meant the Bishop was quickly replaced by the US-built M7 Priest- a 107mm gun mounted on the obsolete M3 Lee tank chassis. Ammunition supply issues of using the dual nationality M7 lead to the US attempting to 25 pounder to the M7 Priest making the T-51 in mid-1942 but delays occurred due to failures of the prototype during live-firing exercises. The US were unable to supply a vehicle solely for the British army so they turned to Canada for help.

After the end of the war, a number of Sextons were sold to Portugal where they were used in dessert colours through to the 1980s.

The Sexton here at Armourgeddon is branded with the number 1 in the serial number position. We believe that this means it was the first of the Sexton Mark I vehicles to roll off production. We know that our Sexton was sold to the USA after completing active duty in Portugal- following the journey of many of these tanks through production in Canada, active duty for the British Army and then on to Portugal. We acquired the tank from the USA in 2012. The engine could not be restored, so a new one has been sourced- from Australia.

The Sexton would have held a 6-man crew; Commander, Gunner, Driver, Radio Operator and two Loaders and as such is quite a sizeable vehicle, which we are looking forward to welcoming back to the museum… soon!

The Half Track also headed to us from Canada, arriving at Armourgeddon about 12 months ago. After a clean down, re paint and significant mechanical servicing, we are presently in the process of changing the differential wrench before this workhorse is put up for sale.

It’s all steam ahead for the restoration team before our Tank Paintball Season begins on the 2^nd April. With the new look museum open to the public and stacked with a wide variety of military vehicles and displays, Armourgeddon is a great day out; complete with it’s own Café de Normandie!