FRAG: A Saga of Perseverance

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Panzerpaul
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FRAG: A Saga of Perseverance

Post by Panzerpaul »

FRAG started in 1999 here in central Denver, Colorado. We are the second official club in the world to organize and the first to have a permanent battlefield. At first there were just 3-4 of us who had gotten into the hobby in the beginning days, and most had a military background or had family who served. We had come to know each other thru a flyer placed at local hobby shops. This was in the days "before" Tamiya had released its TBU. So our games were quite limited and up for contesting as to who had hit whom, and who was the real winner :haha:

The first year we usually met each month at a couple local parks or at a large parking area with a fair sized dirt berm along one side. We had a wide assortment of models.

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None of this was really adequate and we quickly realized that “if” the club was to grow and evolve, we needed a permanent field on which to create a WWII battlefield. The idea of designing and building a miniature battlefield was a natural outgrowth, as some of us had prior experience in building model railroads, and both concepts are based upon……..”recreating the past in miniature”. So….off we started on our quest. :wave:

First, we thought that the most logical place to locate would be at a military museum. But, Denver has no such museum, and Fort Carson in Colorado Springs was too far away even if something could be arranged. Denver had other type museums, such as Frontier History types or Transportation types, but none lent themselves to our needs.

So we thought……”there use to be an old air force base here, and maybe they would have some space”. That was Lowry AFB, long ago shut down and now in the process of total redevelopment for new housing and retail. Still, there were two large hangers that remained and one was being used by an Air Flight Museum. We took our models and showed them what we were about. There was the logic that we could exhibit WWII armor (although miniature) amongst their full scale airplanes and the like, but when we said we would need at least a 50’x 50’ area with dirt on the concrete floor, things kind of went down hill from there. :'(

So, it seemed that our only reasonable avenue was to contact various city, county and state park systems, as well as a number of the private regional systems. None of this worked out, although 3-4 of them were sponsoring RC plane air fields. Guess model tanks rolling around in the dirt are not as attractive as screaming & souring model planes commanding the airways. :/

By this time we were becoming a bit discouraged, but still determined to persevere! And as luck would have it, one of our members was a real estate developer and local broker. A man with contacts no doubt, and some resources to boot. So, many of us constantly looked for land as we drove around town and talked to many a land owner about “letting us use” a corner of this or that. That idea was usually received well until the mention of not paying any rent surfaced. Oh well…….we continued to look…….for nearly a year now. :thumbdown:

Then one day, our real estate guy spotted a nice little piece of land. Yes in deed, it was about ¾ of an acre, located at the back of a big parking lot in an out of the way area where vandals and pot heads did not frequent, but it sloped a good bit and had a lot of shrubs and scrub oak here and there. It was also covered with trash…..not little stuff mind you, we’re talking refrigerators, scrap metal, tires, dead Xmas trees, piles of old brick, concrete bollards and cast off. Just about all the junk anyone could want, and it also served as a dumping ground for that street residue (small pebbles, trash and leftover salt from the winter) which the local street sweepers pick up. Really not your ideal place, but it had big shade trees on one side, was out of the way, and had a paved parking lot adjacent. But best of all, it was owned by the local school system which was sick and tired of all the trash dumping, and had no use for the parcel. It was right across from their large school bus maintenance and storage facility, which came with security cameras, tall parking lot lights, and vehicle security patrols night and day……….now you know why the pot heads were absent……… :lolno: Plus, the local police often staged out of the parking lot at random times. :shh:

So off we went……..to demonstrate our tanks to the powers that be, offering to clean up an unsightly sore thumb, for the right to bring in some dirt for hills and to conduct our monthly fun. And luck was with us……..APPROVED ! So we quickly set to work………our real estate guy, well he had a contractor friend lend us a Bobcat and we scrapped off the top layer of everything, which netted us about 20 dump truck loads of debris, hauled away for free, in trade for dirt that the city had scraped from street reconstruction (debris weighs far less than dirt, when paying to haul it away……. :think: ), and soon we had a nice clean piece of land to work with.

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That was 11 years ago, and since that time we have been allowed to install a 6 foot chain link fence topped with barbed wire (to keep out the local boys who liked to jump our little hills with their bikes) and then a good sized shed in which to store all our goodies. We built work tables for the models and of course improved the battlefield over time. To date there are probably 800 little plastic trees on the hills, and we have built a meandering river, a few mountain passes, a fair amount of bridges, brick patterned roadways and village sidewalks, and about 30 foot of scale 8’ high miniature walls, all out of concrete to withstand the Rocky Mountain winters, and we have over a dozen village buildings, with more to come.

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The club grew initially to 12-15 fairly faithful members, but as some moved away (job changes), some graduated from college (started careers and families), others changed interest, and one very fine fellow passed away, the membership has changed over the years. We still have our core group of 8 (of which 3 are founding members) and another 8-10 who show up now and then, so the club is still going strong and the hobby continues to grow. Our main advertisement is by word of mouth, flyers at the hobby stores, demonstrations at various public shows, ads in Craig’s List (we run 6-8 with pictures in various categories), the school bus drivers and police who are fascinated with all that has taken place over the years, and many people who walk the adjoining trail from the parking lot or who are working out in the new city rec center that was built 4 years ago on the other side of the parking lot.

So….end of saga………. and we will be the first to admit……WE HAD SOME LUCK………in finding our great site. But it was only because we persevered over time, talked to many, many people, worked hard and had fun doing it. For all of you out there wanting a field, don’t give up………keep the faith, and keep talking….to any and all that will listen. You never know who will be a contact that will eventually get you what you want. But if we have one last piece of advice………it is build your battlefield “inside” ……….. then you won’t have to put up with weeds, and leaves, and cold weather, plus you can leave all your hard work set up year round. Good luck. PP :clap: :P :D
"Attack...Attack...Attack !! Always the best defense"
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Xiaoshan_Sailor
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Re: FRAG: A Saga of Perseverance

Post by Xiaoshan_Sailor »

Armour1944 wrote:could you post up some more photos of the battleground as it is now, please?
Yea, you'd not want to see photos of today - most likely still a barren lot like posted on the following link. Am doubtful they'll realize their dream so hope they can find another lot & rebuild what they had before.

https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-tan ... field.html

Here's their updated website & Facebook page to follow updates & donate towards a new home:

https://www.fragarmor.com

https://www.facebook.com/FRAG-RC-Tank-C ... 966251038/
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