Paintball + Tank = WIN!

My Ride for the day: 10th August 2011

I must apologise for the long period of Absence, I’ve had quite a busy month. I was back in Ireland for the awesome Assault on Arkham Tournament (More on this later), My family came to stay with me in England for a few days, I have been looking for a job and I have been preparing to move back to Ireland for the time being.

Not much hobbying time then, but I did get to experience something very different this August...

For Christmas 2010 my very lovely parents got me a present that I didn’t even know existed....

Tank-balling! Basically you take a 4 tonne Trojan (or Bulldog, depends where you are from) armoured personnel carrier, mount a 40 millimetre compressed gas cannon turret which fires ping pong balls filled with water based paint and put over enthusiastic civilians in it.

This was one of the best days out I have ever had. The Place was Armourgeddon and included a tankballing arena, a tank driving track, some small arms and archery stuff as well as regular paintballing. They also had a rather sweet collection of armoured vehicles ranging from a WW2 Sexton (which they were about to restore), to a Humber Pig (which was used extensively in Northern Ireland during the troubles). They even had a T-55.

From a modelling point of view it was really great to see these vehicles up close. I got lots of inspiration from the day at Armourgeddon and a huge insight into how an armoured vehicle works. Before I honestly had very little knowledge on anything but the aesthetics. Now I have a better appreciation for how they move, how they feel, what a crew goes through and how little of the outside world you really can see.

For the Tank-balling Battle, I was in the loader position and I saw nothing of the battlefield, I had a periscope, but didn’t have time to use it as I frantically loaded, charged and fired the weapon.

Here are a few pictures of the museum tanks, unfortunately, the camera which had all the pictures of me in the tank was taken back to Ireland with my family, so I will get them uploaded later on in the month. I must say though, I do look incredibly silly in the Tank helmet.

Quad 50cal- Just so cool!

I Love these bull bars. I think my half tracks are going to get these as an upgrade!

Id really like to build some of these amphibious vehicles for my guard. I think they look amazing and I have always wanted to try a beach landing game!

The sexton- This was rather a lovely old girl, despite her condition, and I said I would come back when they had restored it. Id love to see this when its fixed up.

The mighty T-55. This thing was quite huge!

I have loads more pictures, but most might seem a little boring (close up on road wheels and rivet types anyone?!?). I haven't even posted pics of the artillery or Small arms they had on display either, but I think I will put these on my photobucket another time and link across to save some space.