I spent the day at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds Ordnance Museum. It was the first time I was at the museum and I was impressed at the amount and types pieces that were outside and I liked their displays inside the building.
But I was saddened by the condition of the armor outside. It looked as if most was brush painted (poorly), rusting, missing roadwheels, and the labeling was just about unreadable. I was disappointed at the lack of U.S. armor and the armor that was restored was spred out on the base and they frown on you wandering around the base.[V]
Don’t get me wrong I understand that it takes a lot of time and money to maintain a collection that size and I really enjoyed my visit. [:)] It does my heart good to see that they are trying to raise the money so that they can get a building up to put everything inside and under cover.
They did have a nice selection of 1/35 armor, for a gift shop
Sounds like an injustice to the many battlefield warriors on display. Let’s hope they get some better treatment. My goal is to someday visit Aberdeen and many more.
“It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”-R.E.Lee
I can’t agree more, Trevor. Last week I visited an airforce base and it has a couple of aircrafts and military pieces displayed somewhere around the base gate. These are still in good structural conditions but the have been poorly protected from the elements. I understand that it takes a lot of money to maintain these things but I am just saddened that these important token of history are not taken cared of properly. Yes we will have pictures of them but it is just not the same with the real thing.
As I understand it, government funding has been cut for maintenance and restoration of armor at Aberdeen. The consequences of this action are pieces of rotting history. I don’t know if it’s been tried before, but what is needed (IMO) is a grass-roots effort to raise money and solicit knowledgeable volunteers (mechanics, etc.) as well as those volunteers who simply love history or want to get involved–to preserve, repair and restore some of our relics. Our children, and our future children (as well as us tread-heads) need to be able to experience a sort of “hands-on” history lesson.
Gip Winecoff
Thanks for the replies. That was something that after I got home I just had to get it off make chest.
I did forget to mention that the Ordnance Museum has a Tiger I in its collection, but it is in storage in the United Kingdom awaiting complete restoration. To sum it all up in their words “We are not in a hurry to have the Tiger return due to lack of space to display her.” So djmodels maybe you could find it and get us some pictures.
I did take a few pictures, but silly me I forgot to bring extra film. I will try to post some if they come out OK.