Armortek

On Thursday I was lucky enough to get a place on one of Bovington's "Access All Areas" half day events.

For a modest fee, this gets you into places which are normally off limits to members of the public.

Arrived at 8:45 and was greeted by Richard Smith, the Museum Director and Nicky Croom, the Events Co-ordinator. Then onto the Balcony for tea and Danish pastries, and a short introduction about the history of the museum from Richard.

Once the group was assembled, Nicky took us over to the Supporting Collections, where we were shown round the collection of arms, models, parts and uniforms, with talks from various members of staff about the collections and the museum's on-going cataloguing and conservation works.

The first part of the racking contains ammunition of all shapes and sizes.



It is the mission of the museum to obtain an example of each type of round fired by every model of gun in the museum collection - quite a task

A couple of photos of the real thing for Tim ...





Adrian.

Next in the collection are models of all shapes and sizes, from 1/35th up to 1/6th.





Most are scratch built. This Crusader was made during the North African campaign.
The tracks are made from the canopy of a crashed German plane.



A wooden Matilda II:



The gearing from a large scale model:



Adrian.

After a quick trip to see where the material items such as uniforms, flags etc are stored, we moved on to the Library.

Here they have everything from unit war diaries and casualty lists to racks of donated modelling magazines:



Everything is catalogued and stored in acid free boxes:



After a quick visit to the photograph archive, it was back outside to see the real thing.

Adrian.

We started in one of the vehicle sheds, which contains both vehicles from the collection:



and racks of spare parts of all shapes and sizes:



Real tank spanners

Adrian

Next we moved onto a second shed, containing more vehicles, both runners from the museum's fleet,





as well as privately owned vehicles undergoing restoration:



Then it was back out to the yard to see a Leopard being de-tracked:



Once they had split the track, they reversed the tank back into the workshop out of the weather.

Unfortunately, current H&S rules meant we couldn't actually visit the workshops

Adrian.

Finally, we returned to the museum for a whistle-stop tour, led by the Museum Director, Richard Smith, who gave an interesting insight on his work in running the museum, as well as a running commentary about various of the more obscure vehicles and displays within the collection.

Then off to lunch, for which a discount voucher was provided.

All in all, a very enjoyable morning, with all of the staff involved giving interesting and enthusiastic talks on their various areas within the museum

Adrian.

Outstanding Adrian!

Thanks for thinking of me! You must of had quite a day there.

Best regards
Tim

I know it's not quite the same, but back in the ninteies my brother in law attended one of these charity auctions for things you cannot buy. He bid for a day at Bovington, he couldn't believe it when he bought it for £72 for six people. Due to buisness reasons he couldn't go, so at the last minute I was offered the chance and jumped at it. We were met by a tank commander, had a session on the old mechanical tank simulator, something to see that was, an enormous German country layout with cameras on a rail system above linked to an old DEC computer system. Then got to drive a training Challenger (with no turret on it but seating for about 8 drivers out on the ranges), up over the knife edge as well. Then a visit around the maint garages. Followed by a four course lunch in the officers mess. Then a tour around the museum behind the ropes. Brilliant day out, driving the tank was the best part as the group I was in was two women and myself and they didn't want to drive so I got it all to myself for half an hour, 60 odd tons and the handling was so good, pre-select gearbox, two steering levers, throttle & brake pedals about 18" wide. Had to reverse under directions from the instructor that was a bit scarey. Probably due to modern H & S rules that offer will never be repeated.

Dennis.

Sounds like the bargain of the century

It was interesting to hear the comments on how easy, or otherwise, these tanks are to drive, and which ones the maintenance team love and loathe

Adrian.

Sounds like a great time Adrian. Anytime one can see behind the scenes at a museum is usually well worth it. Reminds me of a behind the scenes look and chat with Jacques Littlefield at Ponytracks a few years ago. Unforgettable, and will never have that chance again.

Thanks for sharing your pix of the day. Bovy is on my "must see" list someday.

Hi Adrian, I remember talking to one of the maint crew and apparently the most boring job is replacing the rubber pads that are bolted to the track links for road use, as all the bolts are usually rusted on. I think now that most of the maint is done by an outside company, one of the lads in my Kit Car Club who lives in Wool works for Vosper Thorneycroft who do most of the maint to the tanks. I asked him about changing an engine in a Challenger and he said takes about 2 hours as it is all module constructed and every connection is all plug in even the hydraulics and water conns.

Dennis.

Adrian

You lucky b.......
Behind the scenes is something i would get out of bed at any time...
Hopefully there are more of these events to come and more people get the possibility to visit...

Regards

Sven

Next one is December the 10th

http://www.tankmuseum.org/ixbin/indexpl ... rd=ART1988

Adrian

> Thanks for thinking of me!

De nada Tim

I was initially amazed at how top heavy the shell was.

Then my other brain cell kicked in and I realised that there obviously wasn't any charge in it

Then I realised how heavy a fully loaded one would be

No way I'd want to be heaving a whole bunch of them around inside a Tiger turret.

Adrian.