About this detail of the Tiger
The prototype Tiger, "V1", had no mudguards on its sides, and its front was covered by "Vorpanzer" equipment; but at the back it had two removable mudguards. These mudguards were also installed on the first 27 production Tigers.
The mudguards were held in place by bolts. Since it was undesirable to drill bolt holes into armour plate, a metal frame was welded to each rear corner of the hull. Six bolts were threaded into this frame; it also had a position for a tail light. This is the right-hand frame.
The mudguard could be lifted off the frame; it was not necessary to remove the bolts, only to loosen them. This is a diagram of the right-hand frame. The left-hand one was a mirror image of this.
This is the mudguard installed on the frame. The mudguard had strengthening ribs, and holes were cut into them so that they could be used as handles when removing the mudguard.
This is a rear view of the mudguards installed on the frame. The mudguards were not "mirrored"; both were identical.
This CAD file depicts the mudguards.
Because these mudguards did not cover the full width of the tracks, the 501 Heavy Tank Battalion apparently chose to build extensions for them. These took the form of additional segments, attached by the two outer bolts as shown here. The segments were made with square, diagonal or rounded corners.
The segments did not match up neatly with the side mudguards, as the profile shows. In many cases it looks as though they were bent to make them fit.
This typical example of a complete "African" mudguard shows the poor fit of the extension segment.