AMPS 2008

by Michael Benolkin

The Armor Modelers Preservation Society (AMPS) is an international modeling organization that specializes in the modeling of armor and military soft-skinned vehicles. Like the International Plastic Modelers Society (IPMS), they have regional events as well as an annual convention. This year, AMPS held its international convention April 11-12, 2008, at the World War II Victory Museum in Auburn, Indiana. This museum’s collection was acquired from the Belgian ‘Victory in Europe’ museum that had closed, and its unique array of combat vehicles was relocated into a newly built museum in Northeast Indiana. This is AMPS first (and hopefully not last) convention at this facility.

Like any good modeler’s convention, AMPS had a nice vendors’ room with a fair number of companies present with a wide range of hobby items of interest to the armor modeler. One vendor who had a good-sized presence at the show was Great Models Webstore and its owner, Loic Anthian, was wearing his French Army uniform from his service a few decades ago. He had a nice range of armor kits, aftermarket items, and references on sale. He also had one of his 1/6 scale armor pieces on display.

Woody Vondracek of Archer Fine Transfers had a new product on-hand. This is a waterslide decal that has relief detail molded onto the surface of the decal. You can see wood patterns, rivet details, weld lines, welded-on serial numbers, etc. This is a product worth trying out!

Chris Mrosko was also on-hand with an interesting line of figures and resin armored vehicles coming out of his New World Miniatures line. This figure of a contemporary US soldier has stunning details!

GCLaser is a company familiar to model railroaders and this group has crossed over into the armor modeling world with their terrific line of laser-cut wood kits. What better way of modeling wooden details like cargo truck seats and sideboards, field-build tank side skirts, picket fences, wooden doors, etc., than in wood? We’ve seen much of this type of detailing done in styrene, resin, and even photo-etch, but what has the most realistic wooden appearance than using real wood? Look for some interesting stuff from these folks.

Last, but certainly not least, the president of Hobby Fan Trading Company was present at the show along with his top lead representative to North America. Hobby Fan Trading Company owns AFV Club, Hobby Fan, and a few other interesting lines of interest to the modeler. These gentlemen had some test shots of their upcoming releases on display at the show.

The attendance at the show was still building up on Friday as folks traveled to Indiana as soon as they could get away from their day jobs. By Saturday, it appeared that the show had exceeded its attendance expectations. Even with the price of gasoline running around $3.50 per gallon, attendance was strong.

So without further ado, here is a look at some of the entries into this year's AMPS contest. Click on an image to see a larger view.