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 released several "initial" Tiger kits in the early 2020s, and tooled some new parts for them. This included a small sprue with new sprocket wheels on it. But for some reason, these new wheels don't match the real ones.

Rye Field sprocket

These are the sprocket parts that Rye Field instruct you to use. Their bolts are between their teeth. No Tiger ever looked like this.

Machined sprocket hub

The most accurate sprocket part in this kit is "D46", which is inherited from an older kit. But while its bolts are in the right places, its gently rounded hub may not be correct. Some of the "Initial" Tigers had a machined hub like this one. We don't have good enough photos to know which Tigers of this kind did or did not match "D46".

 
 

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