Rye Field Model Tiger I sPzAbt 503 w/ Interior

[mannloon]

I'm doing a build review for Armorama of this thing, so I thought I'd post a few pictures of where it's at. It sapped my mojo pretty fast due to the fiddly nature and part count, but I finally got the turret together last night.

[jbellos1]

Nice job Adam. How fiddly is this one? Armorama, eh? Will have to watch for the full Monty whenever it is finished.

[mannloon]

Some of the sprue gates are dumb, but besides that it's just death by small parts. Once it gets going it's smoothish sailing, just took me forever to get that far. I've been doing build reviews for Armorama for a while now. It's a weird experience, you don't paint anything, you just see how it goes together.


My infamous scathing Tauchpanzer III H review
http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op= ... t&id=11626

Recent Brummbär review
http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op= ... t&id=11830

[Coen]

I love death by small parts!!
So colour me excited... I have a pair of these on a slow boat from China.
I like the look of it so far. Those EPMs on the turret wall are in the same place as the other kit, I'm guessing its the same mould.
I'm guessing that some of the over thick parts are also the same then?

[Jagdpanzer]

Adam, I noticed a few Wilder products in the background. I would be very interested to hear your views on them some time.

[mannloon]

Adam, I noticed a few Wilder products in the background. I would be very interested to hear your views on them some time.

I've yet to test them as I'm waiting on some paint related stuff for a current build. As soon as I use them I'll let you know. I'll tell you his pigments are more affordable for the size than Mig or Vallejo. I have his enamel products as well, very curious how they work so I'll be using them exclusively on my next few builds to see how I like them.

I love death by small parts!!
So colour me excited... I have a pair of these on a slow boat from China.
I like the look of it so far. Those EPMs on the turret wall are in the same place as the other kit, I'm guessing its the same mould.
I'm guessing that some of the over thick parts are also the same then?

Mike I think you'll love it. It's mostly exactly what you saw in the DAK one except they fixed the gun length and did something to the smoke launcher brackets, but they're still wrong. So I replaced them with Dragon. The bracing in the lower hull and all the detail is something I hadn't seen except for in custom scratch built stuff. It's fantastic. Still Rye Field but fantastic if that makes sense. I decided to only fill really obvious EPMs, got tired of it honestly, there are many. But it makes that Academy kit look like a joke.

[arkbuilder2012]

Looks good. Will check out your review. Been following the two blogs on Track Link and I was sold> Getting ready to order a couple - to add to my 7 additional Tigers in the to do stash

I might need help......

[burnie43]

I can't deal with anything to fiddly ( it's a hand thing !! ) and I have been drooling over this kit for a while ...so thanks Adam, you have just saved me a few bob !!
Great work as usual mate
cheers
Mark

[OliveDrab]

That's some stunning detail in that turret, makes you realize just how cramped it was for the crew in many of these AFVs. Its almost a shame to cover it all up

[mannloon]

I did a second coat of gloss on my current painting/weathering project so while it dried I poked at the 503 Tiger. Some bits gave me trouble. The suspension shocks next to the driver and radio operator don't fit well. The guys on Track-Link had the same issues. I thought maybe Rye Field had their part numbers flipped. In the end they look fine, it's just stupid that they don't give you marks for the upper part and the bottom part doesn't fit. The seat for the driver as well, 3 of the 4 legs of the seat fit to the floor and one just hovers there? I may have done something wrong there. But I'm cruising along. I busted out the Academy kit to compare parts, and Academy surprisingly had the detail level pretty close to this, just a bit less refined and bulky. The fit however on this is way way better. This has been a pretty fun build. Eventually.

I will say a lot of the interior parts are in the old two half style, leaving some nasty seams to fix. I'm just going to build it as is this time, but look at things like the big radio box and frame to the right of the driver. That's exactly how Academy did that part in 1996. Dragon does frames like that very well, Rye Field makes some pretty awful molding decisions.

[mick]

great work

[InitialProduction1]

Very cool Adam, can't wait to get the break down, and what your thoughts On it. Awesome work.

[Zippo]

Cool Love the detail!!

[RichardT]

Adam,

fantastic build. Magnificent.

[InitialProduction1]

Sweet work Adam, can't wait to start on mine. How was the turret? It does look buzzy. Also what tank are you building from 503? And what color are you using? Again very cool.

[mannloon]

More Interior work today











No fit issues closing up at the moment, looks like it fits ok. There is a little width bowing due to the fire wall but I don't think it will effect fit.





Thanks guys. As to what tank, I was thinking 321 but may still go 323. I'm just at the point where I need to decide.

The turret was actually very easy.

[JoeKundlak]

Nice work Adam! This is a lovely, even if busy (due to the number of parts) model!
Would one day like to get one of these...

Is it just me or is there a bit of flash on the fans?
Or is cleaning up outstanding yet once you finish the raw assembly/glueing?

[mannloon]

I see it now, good eye.

[InitialProduction1]

Hate bugging you adam, but do you think that the gear drive for the fans is set to high on the inner engine compartment? I only ask cause I've scratch built the two small drive shafts and they don't match the gear hub, in pictures they look straight, but mine have to go down and back some. I might have to chuck it all, and just build the kit. Love watching your build Buddy. Also tried to add a photo but I'm a dumb A in downloading pics.

[Timplastic]

Hubba Hubba
That's a nice looking kit
Gosh that must be a lot of parts
It looks like you have gone along and built it with no painting the interior individual colours,
Does it all break down into sub assemblies ?
Tim

[RichardT]

Adam,

I have both their DAK and the 503rd - do you think i could put their 503rd interior into the DAK ?

By the way magnificent build - absolutely fantastic - how long did it take from start to finish ?

Are you going to paint the interior ?

All the best,
Richard

[jubelperser]

Seems to be a good kit. Great build so far!

[panzerdodge]

Looks great Adam. Just ordered mine today, never done a full interior kit before. So we will see how it go's looks a little intimidating.

[mannloon]

Adam,

I have both their DAK and the 503rd - do you think i could put their 503rd interior into the DAK ?

By the way magnificent build - absolutely fantastic - how long did it take from start to finish ?

Are you going to paint the interior ?

All the best,
Richard

You absolutely can put the interior in the DAK, it's the same hull piece. I'm not sure if I'll paint it, this was maybe a weeks work of a couple hours a night. It's pretty fast actually.

[mannloon]

Hubba Hubba
That's a nice looking kit
Gosh that must be a lot of parts
It looks like you have gone along and built it with no painting the interior individual colours,
Does it all break down into sub assemblies ?
Tim

I did this because it's a review for Armorama. The transmission/drive assembly could easily be made to be take out as could the engine. I'm just building it up for pictures on the site and then I'll have a go at painting it all done up. If it sucks I'll just button the thing up and never look at it.

[RichardT]

Hi Adam,

thanks for the info.

I am starting on my RF DAK next week - i will put the interior in from the 503rd. Will let everyone know if there are any problems.
Hopefully not. I will paint the interior but not going overboard in terms of colour accuracy and with no labelling of parts as in the real tank.

I have a metal barrel and the TMD models correction kit (got those after i watched your fair after build report). This kit should now end up
being pretty accurate. Anyway another 3 months work from start to finish.The tank will be 501st no 142.

I have just finished a hack/slash/frankenstein Tamiya DAK with upgrades and using many Dragon spares and some RF parts e.g cables - turned out OK but is more expensive to build than just buying the RF or even latest Dragon DAK kit and upgrading those. The tank is 501st no 141. Will post pics sometime in January.

PS saw your fair review on the Dragon 6608 DAK - you are bang on about the tools. If they had made a little more effort and supplied proper tools and magic tracks with hollow guide horns - that would have cracked the DAK issue. But no - us modellers have to spend more cash on upgrades.

Cheers,
Richard

[Stokesy44]

Looks amazing. How are you going to display it? Its my hang up with interiors (on any type of kit), you do all that work and no one sees it.

Great build so far, beautiful detail.

[Mylightweight]

Looking like a great build so far, I really want to do a kit with an interior but get bent out of shape because nobody will see it, maybe one day I'll find a way around it.

[mannloon]

This thing started to drag. I'm nearing the finish line, just trying to figure out the exact vehicle features for Tiger 311 of this unit. Conduit and some other bits were a huge pain.

[InitialProduction1]

Outstanding build Adam, can't wait to see her in paint. I've almost fixed some of the stuff, and I found the reinforced gun mantlet, that is on 323, so to heck with scratch building that. Ordered it yesterday. And those ammo pouches, i found that i can just reverse the photo etch parts, short for long, it doesn't go all the way down the co,drivers bulkhead but I might get 4 ammo pouches there now. Again very cool build.

[Novorus]

Adam, looks like a lot of work but a good kit. For me though something that would drive me nuts, so much detail and buttoned up.

Enjoying your work to be sure

[DByrden]

I have both their DAK and the 503rd - do you think i could put their 503rd interior into the DAK ?

Well, firstly, the DAK were never issued any Tigers. All of the Tigers in Africa belonged to the 5th Panzer Army.

But, to answer the question; the turret stowage inside the Tigers of the 501 Battalion was different in several ways to what's in the later Rye Field "503" version. You'd want to move a few things around to do it properly.

David

[Kevthemodeller]

I've got this kit in my stash, really looking forward to building it.