Rye Field Model Tunisian Tiger

[thug626]

With the Abrams done, I decided to stick with a desert theme.  The Tunisian Tiger by Rye Field Model.  This will be my first RFM kit.  Initially I was thinking of building up one of their tigers with an interior, but I wanted to build a desert Tiger, and this one is sans interior.  

[tony]

Nice Box but "Where's The Beef"??

Uncle Tony

[BUCKY]

Teaser shot!! LoL

[JCON]

I love a good Tiger, will gladly pull up my chair by Unk and Boss Man!!! I've brought some popcorn fellas!!!

[BUCKY]

That bucket will take a trainload of salt!!

[tony]

[JCON]

[SteveM]

Be interesting to see this coming together, I’ve a Tamiya in the stash so I’ll compare and contrast

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

[thug626]

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for stopping by. Sorry for the teaser shot only. I had time to get the one pic up before my work stretch....no energy after shifts.
Soooooooo....... I am hoping there is still some popcorn left. The beer is in the fridge!
Here's the beef. Just for you Tony!

The barrel and brake are a six piece assembly.




The commanders cupola has a nice bit of detail on the interior...shades of a full interior kit to come (well at the time of this kits release). With the glue all set up, there will be weld detail added to the grab handle, and seam line removed.


This was a nice surprise! There are some resin goodies included which I did not know about, nor are they mentioned in the instructions. The hinge and hasp detail is far better than the styrene version.


I added some Bronco castle nuts and lead wire for some missing detail. The added weld lines still need a little work.

[JCON]

Nice work Dave, sorry you work place is being such a pain brother!!!

[thug626]

No worries brother. My work pays for a great many things. Including my hobby.

[BUCKY]

I had the same lack of energy after shift at the nuclear plant!
This is looking great, Dave! I really like the weld details on this build!

[JCON]

Feb 18, 2018 15:24:34 GMT -6 thug626 said:

No worries brother. My work pays for a great many things. Including my hobby.

Very true!!!  

[JEFF]

Great start, Dave. Don't forget the Cotter pins for your Castle nuts.

[JCON]

Lol Jeff!!!

[cliffj (R.I.P.)]

Gonna be watching this one Dave. I built the Dragon Tunisia Tiger and I want to see how this one compares.

[thug626]

Keith Thank you very much my good man.
Jeff Every time I try to scratch build a pin, it goes pinging off to the hinter land. So, no cotter pins.
Jcon Cheeky fella isn't he? Actually the idea was a fleeting one at one point. The voice of reason took over.
Cliffj Glad to have you along. Comments, and constructive criticisms are always welcome. So far the directions are far better than Dragons. There were some wrong parts call outs. Instead of sprue A they were on sprue B, but with the proper number. A couple of the diagrams in the instructions are a bit vague.


The final drive with the sprocket mounting plate. As you can see the EP marks that required a bit of attention. The 1.4mm punch set and some styrene fixed that. The mounting of the final drive on the right side required some filling to clear the forward swing arm station. Not a deal breaker for the kit.


This was a monster of my own making. I wanted the swing arms to articulate, so I clipped the tabs, leaving one swing arm with the tab intact to allow for alignment of the arms on a side. Good thing I did. I had failed to realize that the opposite end of the swing arm/torsion spring has a piddley mounting surface to glue. So, I glued some styrene in to beef up the surface area that is glued. This is why I did the non-interior Tiger first.


I am loving the detail on this beastie.


Outer and inner detail of the drive sprockets. When I get around to building the interior Tiger, I just may have to to a maintenance dio.

[JCON]

Yeah he is a bit cheeky!!! Work looks good Dave!!!

[BUCKY]

Impressive work, Dave! Really coming along, nicely!!