MAG Trip Report

[Frank Pittelli <frank-at-rctankcombat.com>]

Five members of the Maryland Attack Group traveled down to the AAF Tank 
Museum in Danville, Virginia for a fantastic day of looking at and 
talking about tanks.  The museum is one of the largest (if not the 
largest) private tank collections in the country and they were holding a 
military show with a little bit of everything, from WW-II re-enactors 
(standing around in heavy uniforms in the 90 degree sun!!) to 1/16 small 
scale tank battles (using LEDs and sensors) to a bunch of lunatics with 
paintball-shooting large scale tanks ;-)

I've done quite a few similar shows in the past for warships and 
sailboats, and it's always nice to show off your work to others and see 
the look on their face when you tell them that the models actually shoot 
something.  Yesterday was no different and we all had fun explaining all 
the systems, design trade-offs and telling some of the stories from our 
short battling careers.  But the best part was letting kids drive the 
tanks around (under some close supervision) while their parents were 
taking photos of them at the controls.  Heck, even a couple older "kids" 
got their chance at driving the beasts.

Throughout the day, the 1/16 scale guys were waging their brand of 
warfare on a very large sculptured battlefield with small towns, rivers, 
mountain passes, etc. that is permanently maintained by the museum. 
They had about 20 battlers from Virginia, Florida, Indianna and other 
places.  In between their battles, we would crank up our tanks and drive 
them around, usually causing everyone to look our way and see "those big 
tanks" rumbling around.  We ran them on a smooth concrete floor, so they 
were spinning around with ease.

We handed out over 30 pamphlets about the hobby to interested, mostly 
middle-aged men, who all thought they were the only large scale tank 
lunatics in the world, but were happy to see that they weren't.

So, if you have the opportunity to show off your tank at a modeling, 
military or hobby show, I would encourage you to do so.  You'll meet 
lots of interested people, get to talk endlessly about your hobby and 
maybe even find a battling partner.  If you'd like a copy of the handout 
  we used it is located here:

        http://www.rctankcombat.com/marketing/brochure.pdf

Other than shooting paintballs at another tank, there is no better way 
to spend an afternoon.

        Frank "Just Call Me Don King" Pittelli