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Armorama.com AMPS 2007 Award

Getting to the show

In the ongoing effort to further the hobby of armor model building, Armorama.com sponsored an award this year at the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society (AMPS) International show held in April 2007 at Havre de Grace, Maryland. Pvt. Parts (John Fortier) and myself did one of our weekend road trips to attend. We started out Friday morning and our 2.5-hour drive turned into a 4-hour odyssey due to construction and ever-increasing traffic congestion. I pity those poor souls that commute along this path during rush hour; it was a long trip down in mostly bumper-to-bumper traffic.

We arrived late in the afternoon, and headed directly to the Community Center, paid our admission, and spent the rest of the day checking out the vendors and exhibits. Eventually the combination of the long drive and inactivity with suddenly standing and walking had some adverse effects on my back and legs and we left the show and headed to the hotel to rest up. Then we headed to the Japanese restaurant next to the hotel and more rest. It sucks having a bad back and anyone with a bad back will surely agree with that.

the main event

On Saturday morning we got up, had our free breakfast at the hotel which wasn’t bad at all, and headed out to the show again. I had a great time meeting a lot of people and putting faces to names and was actually surprised that I already knew many of those there. The most fun was talking most of the afternoon to Roy Chow, I’m sure I chewed that nice young fellows ear half off with excessive senile babble!

I spent the remaining time taking photos, with a few short breaks buying stuff I’ll probably never build, (I did get a great deal on a resin kit!) and searching for a seat to rest my legs and back. I never did make it out to the food tent, sorry Frank, thanks for the invite, but hopefully I’ll make it the next time I’m down there. As the day wore on, my back and legs over whelmed me and I’m afraid I’m really not a social butterfly when I’m in pain.

Award Winner

When I arrived on Saturday, I spoke with Dave Potter about the Armorama.com award the site was sponsoring. He wanted to know if I was going to judge it and I shocked him when I told him NO. I preferred to have the more knowledgeable AMPS members judge it as I certainly didn’t want it to appear as if it was “Grumpy” handing it to a buddy. So the AMPS judges did the judging and I was just as surprised and happy when the winner was announced. So without any further talking, it time to announce the winner of the “Best WWII Sherman Award” sponsored by Armorama.com.

AND THE WINNER IS---- errr WAS: Jim Wechsler with the title of: "The Hard Way". Congratulations Jim, a really nice piece. I’ve also posted 270 photos from the AMPS International 2007 in the AMPS Gallery here on Armorama. I have more photos to add from the show as time permits.