Armortek

After our visit to the Tank Museum last week, we now have more details on our event to be held on October 10th, when we will be joining forces with the Museum and combining our Armortek Day with their Tankmod event.

The Museum link is here:
http://www.tankmuseum.org/whats-on/events/bovevt53099

Armortek will take over the Tank Story Hall, with large areas available to display your models, including tables for those bringing their Kompact Kits. There will be a central roped off running area, allowing us to demonstrate the models in action to the public.

One of the highlights of the day is always the competition. This year, we’ve decided to give it a make-over and, now that he has some time on his hands, we asked long standing customer, Stephen White, to give it a new look and he has kindly agreed. Stephen has got three judges lined up already, Vince Abbott, who is well known from early Armortek Days and authors David Fletcher and Dick Taylor. The competition should have something for every Armortek builder. Stephen will keep in the background and won’t take part in the competition itself or the judging. He’ll post more details shortly.
We of course are hoping that as many customers with their models will attend the event in person, however we appreciate that for many of our overseas customers this is not always possible. Therefore in recognition of the many talented overseas builders we will also be having an on-line 'International Award' . Details on how to submit photographs for this competition will be published in due course.

The day is all about models and we would love to see as many vehicles as possible on the day. The museum will give an entrance pass for every model that is brought along, so an opportunity to give a free day out to your friends and family. Additionally everyone with a pass will be given a 10% discount in the museums catering outlets.

The day will culminate with tea, coffee and cakes on the balcony where the competition winners will be announced and presented with their prizes.

Further details on the day and also on our 'sale and social' day at the Armortek factory on Sunday 11th will follow.

We look forward to seeing you in October.
2013 Event

Gill and Mark

The wise say “never volunteer” – Gill has a way with words though……..
Firstly, what are we hoping to do with this new look competition? We’d like it to have something for everyone, from plain cook to Armortek Black Belt. It’s always very difficult to separate the popularity (or lack of it) of the real article from the quality of a particular Armortek model, so maybe some have felt disadvantaged from the start by their choice of model. This year, we’d like to focus on the models themselves. So we’ve set the judges three challenges:

We’d like to encourage building, engineering and modelling skills at all levels, not just in highly detailed models but also those built out of the Armortek box.

At the same time, we’d like to recognise original research and development of new engineering and modelling materials and techniques.

And we’d like to make it fun.

The judges. We’ve been lucky to secure three very experienced judges:

Vince Abbott. Vince was in at the start of Armortek and is a highly respected professional model maker. Some examples of his amazing work are here: http://vincesgallery.smugmug.com/

David Fletcher MBE. David is well known for his work at the Tank Museum and is widely respected as an author and tank expert. His work includes definitive work on early tanks and on British armour.

Lieutenant Colonel Dick Taylor RTR. Dick is a serving professional tank soldier, author and model maker. He has a very wide knowledge of armour and has published a number of books, whilst serving in some of the world’s trouble spots. He’s particularly well known in plastic modelling circles.


The Competition

It’s early days but here is what to expect. To enter the competition, you will simply have to turn up at Bovington with one or more Armortek models. All the models will be judged by the three wise men during the course of the day. There will be no distinction between types of model (so Kompact Kits enter on equal terms), no separation into categories or nationalities of equipment. There will be prizes and we’ve already agreed with the Tank Museum that one prize will be privileged access to some selected tanks in the collection, including a look inside. Prizes will be awarded in three broad categories:

Best “Out of the Box” Build – the winning model will represent a high level of basic engineering skill in making the most of a standard kit. This category would not exclude some minor modifications but would represent the best of the Armortek kit as delivered.

Best Customised Build – the winner should offer a model which most realistically represents a real vehicle, whether by paintwork alone or by a combination of paint and customisation. Additional recognition will be given to original research leading to reproduction of a particular vehicle or unit with appropriate use of historical colour schemes, accurate representation of a particular variant or type and enhancements to represent a well used, operational vehicle. Supporting references would be welcome but not essential. (We’ll rely on the extensive knowledge of our judges). This will show what can be achieved by building on the Armortek kit to make a museum standard model.

Best Engineering Achievement – the winner will have contributed to the state of the art of one sixth scale modelling. Possible areas might include: making new parts, use of innovative techniques, new functionality for motion/sound. We hope this part of the competition will appeal to the model engineer who enjoys developing new modelling techniques.

That’s all for now. Above all else, we hope it will be fun and that we all come away thinking it has celebrated the real, broad range of what can be done with Mark and Gill’s models and some quality shed time. Stephen

Already looking forward to the event.
Great to meet old friends and new, See you all at the Tank Museum.
Regards
Steve

Hi,

I will be there with one of my Armortek models.
Best regards Yves

We're looking forward to TankMod in October when we can all celebrate your achievements. There is a special reason, which we'll announce shortly, why we really would like to beat all our previous records for attendance. In 2013 we had around seventy models at the Armortek Day at the Museum and this year we'd like to beat that by a large margin, particularly as it's a public event. There are a few thousand of Armortek models out there, so we're hopeful.

We are very conscious though that it will be difficult for most of our customers who don't live in UK to attend and show their models. We would though like to celebrate all the wonderful craftsmanship we see every day on the Forum. To do this, we'd like to invite our overseas customers to submit one or more photos of their models and any references if the model is based on a particular original vehicle or gun. Stephen will then ask our team of judges to apply their judgement to select the best, to receive our 'Overseas Award'

Please email comp@armortek.co.uk with your photos. If you need to send large files, please use : http://www.wetransfer.com

Good luck and get posting.

If Adrian, brings all of his shermans that are in boxes, that should swell the no's!!!!!p.s if you give me a shout , i'll help you load the pantechnicon
denny

And the ones which aren't in boxes, don't forget them

Adrian.

Hi Adrian I have ordered the artic for all your models

I just need to get the mice to build them for me

Adrian.

Be part of a world record attempt!


We’re delighted to announce that Guinness World Records have approved our bid to set a world record for the number of 1/6th armour scale models under one roof. During our October Event at the Tank Museum, we’re aiming to bring together over eighty Armortek models.

For this exciting challenge to be successful, we’ll need as many of you to bring your models as possible, including Kompact Kits of course. Stephen is already talking to Guinness for us and has invited David Fletcher and Dick Taylor to act as the required independent expert witnesses. For the bid to be successful, we will have to meet a number of conditions. Each model will have to be recorded, photographed and provided with evidence that the original existed at some point in time. To be eligible, the models don’t have to be exact replicas of existing tanks at the Tank Museum, they just have to represent a type which has existed.


Stephen is starting to put together this required package of evidence but we will need your support. It will help enormously to know as soon as possible what models you will bring. If you’re able, it would really help too in the next few weeks if you could provide a photo with caption of the original, whether that’s just a generic vehicle or gun or the individual one if your model is based on a specific original.

However, at this stage, it would just be helpful if you could let us know you intend to come and which model(s) you would bring. We’ll ask for confirmation closer to the day, so that we can issue the passes.

Let’s really make this memorable and set a unique world record.

Thank you

Gill and Mark

Yes well, one mid tiger, one late tiger,one panther . one jagpanther, one king tiger P.T. one Pak, and me!!!!!!! denny.

Denny, Armortek's early version model of a Terminator
He will be back!
His Tanks provide a good start towards the total.
Steve

Would love to be part of that, I'm just too far away though it's so frustrating !!!
Bloody Scotsmen always moaning !!

Bry

Forgot to mention that 10th oct is actually my birthday so makes it even more annoying !!!

This sounds like something not to be missed.

I will definitely be binging my Panther G even if it is not 100% complete.

cheers
Tim