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Armorama.com AMPS 2007 Award

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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.
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About the Author

About Dave O'Meara (Grumpyoldman)
FROM: FLORIDA, UNITED STATES

I'm rewriting this in a much more humoristic way, to help over inflate my ego, and place my self on a pedestal, because I don't have a life, and plastic models are the only thing I live for. I plead guilty as charged to excessive babble, light hearted humor, and continued encouragement to youngsters...


Comments

WOW!!!! What a SUPER job!!!!!! Speechless! Rob
JUN 10, 2007 - 07:29 AM
Fantastic dio!! Is that the DML Gen2 figure set? Rudi
JUN 10, 2007 - 06:09 PM
Wow thats amazing. how do you do that water?
JUN 10, 2007 - 06:49 PM
Wow! Excellent job. The only thing that struck me was that the Shermans should have been more wet and shiny above the water line due the waves etc. Like the drum on the beach. However, that does not distract from the diorama being excellent. How did you do the water? Thanks for sharing
JUN 10, 2007 - 08:04 PM
Congratulations, Mr. Wechsler, and my comments echo my site mates, great job overall...very nice dio, great action...thanks for the experience, Dave! Cheers, ~Gunny
JUN 10, 2007 - 08:45 PM
Jim and I spoke about this very issue. He said from photographs he had and writings of tankers who made the wade into shore, the surf remained mostly off of the tank's upper hull. Jim is a great stickler for detail (as if you can't tell) and he modelled the "dryness" according to his best research. BTW, that historical point was not taken into account and cost him in the eyes of some of the judges that day sadly. Ahh, such is life. Jim continues to literally crank models and dioramas out constantly. He posts most of his work over on TL. Amongst Jim's other entries at the AMPS Show was also the winner of the "Fish Tanks" theme award: he modelled a great M4A3 amphibian , swimming along during the Okinawa invasion. HTH, RC
JUN 10, 2007 - 11:56 PM
THIS IS AMAZING! How did you do the water.
JUN 11, 2007 - 12:57 AM
Here is Jim's own write up and more pictures: http://www.track-link.net/gallery/4994
JUN 11, 2007 - 02:38 AM
Thanks for the nice comments. Special thanks to Armorama for hosting the 'Best Sherman' award. Here's the answers to a few of the questions in the posts above. All of the figures except the guy throwing the hand grenade are the Dragon Gen 2 figures. There's the four in the kit and I made a 5th from the left over parts and a set of legs in my spares bin. I made the water using a product called Envirotek Lite. You can find it in art supply stores (in the US, Michaels carries it). It is lightly tinted with Tamiya acrylics. The white water is made from the white top of a kitchen sponge. The sufrace is made up from home silicone caulking (the water soluable kind) and the whole thing is coated in a product called Acrylic Varnish, also available in the art supply store. The note about the tanks being wetter is accurate. In retrospect I wish I'd made a darker section that was glossy wet but it was too hard to do once fully mounted and to be honest, I was afraid I'd wreck the whole thing. Jim Jim
JUN 11, 2007 - 02:46 AM
Congrats Jim! Well deserved Cheers, Michael
JUN 11, 2007 - 11:15 AM