FV432/30 driving experience

In May I turned 21. As a belated present a family friend thought that I should receive a rather memorable present...needless to say once I found out I was gonna be driving a 'tank' I was rather excited...here are a few photos and a compilation video I put together from some footage my dad took...

The vehicle I drove was a converted FV432/30. The FV432/30 is a standard FV432 APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier) that was fitted with a turret lifted from the Fox armoured car CVRW (Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Wheeled) and was used during the Cold War...
The FV432/30 Infantry Support Vehicle/CVRT (Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked) had had the RARDEN cannon removed (along with alot of the interior turret bits and pieces, so it was quite roomy in there) and in it's place a custom 'air cannon' was installed. The big cylinders on the rear of the turret contained compressed air which propel 40mm(!) 'paintballs' down the barrel at the target...all good fun :D
The 'Tank Battle Experiance' that the company do is (with a crew of 3) you each get a lap of the track (half with the hatch open and half with it closed), then you do some target practice rotating around the 2 positions within the turret...a small breather in the 'ops room' (reception/brew station) and quick talk on tactics and position choosing (I opted for driver straight away)...then back out into the vehicle, baton down the hatches and take position for the battle against an 'enemy tank'...both 'tanks' get 12 paintballs and the most hits win...my 'Ellie May' was against the enemy 'Sally' and the score was 11 - 6 to us :D VICTORY!
Once the experience is over (after about 2hrs for the whole battle experiance) then you have a quick debrief, look over the pics taken by the on field photographer and spend some money :P gotta wait for my pics to come through the post then might upload some more :)

I have to say out of the 3 positions in the vehicle that they offered with the 'Tank Battle Experience' (driving, aiming and loading/firing) the driving was by far the best...nothing quite beats driving through inches of mud with your visibility restricted so that you can't see anything apart from a small letter box view to the front :D

I hope to find a model of this vehicle at some point in the near future...whether I paint it up like 'Ellie May' I don't know, but I do now like this vehicle...



If anyone is interested in the experience or other similar ones definitely check out Armourgeddon's website...is bloody awesome :D

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