Tiger ausf. E : Sprocket wheels

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Tiger sprockets

The Tiger's sprocket wheels (the ones with teeth) have a ring of bolts on their rim. The bolts allow you to replace the tooth ring if you break a tooth.

Sprocket teeth on Tiger 712

The tooth ring has a bolt hole exactly under each tooth. This Tiger in Saumur museum is missing two bolts, and the bolts that we can see are facing in opposite directions. Technically the direction made no difference, but photos from that time usually show the nuts on the outside.

Notice that the "arms" linking this ring to the hub are placed exactly between bolts. Almost all Tiger sprockets had their "arms" there.

Sprocket teeth on Tiger V1

But at the start of Tiger production, a very small number of sprockets were made with the "arms" aligned to the bolts and teeth. The first prototype Tiger, called "V1", had them. This is its left-hand sprocket. The "arms", the bolts and the teeth are all in line.


Rye Field's parts

Rye Field, for some reason, repeatedly create new-tooled Tiger sprockets that don't match the real ones. They released five Tiger kits in the early 2020s, all of which used incorrect sprocket parts.

Rye Field sprocket on PA sprue, for kit 5071

This kit has a sprue called "PA". It was tooled specifically for this unique Tiger. It has these new sprocket wheels. But, once again, Rye Field have placed the bolts between the teeth. The real Experimental Tiger didn't look like this. In fact, no Tiger ever looked like this.

 
 

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