Stokesy's RFM Gruppe Fehrmann Tiger I

[Stokesy44]

After much deliberation, next up on the build conveyor belt is RFM's late war Tiger. No interior, workable track links (which I will not be using given they are a PITA) and workable suspension, if chosen.



A bit of info about the Gruppe Fehrmann Tigers

The Kampfgruppe Fehrmann was composed of tank school instructors and their training tanks. There were around 6 Tigers, 5 Panthers and 2 half trucks (numbered F01-F13). The Tigers were under the command of Oberleutnant Fehrmann and the Panthers were led by Major Schulze.

The Kampfgruppe attempted to break into the Ruhr pocket. Fehrman was captured in an assault on US positions so Schulze was left in command for the rest of the engagements. Those guys put up a good fight and nearly broke through British and American lines until the remaining Tiger (F05) ran out of fuel.

The tigers at the school were around 2 years old and by the time they went into combat they were the very definition of 'non-standard', some had Zimmerit applied, some were missing their original Feifel filters and smoke dischargers, some had steel wheels, replacing their original running gear.

The kit - after the removal of the offending tracks , the plastic looks lovely and crisp as it should for a relatively now tool offering. Construction looks pretty straight forward although the plan view of the main deck did make me chuckle with the myriad of holes that require drilling for all the bits and bobs to be located.













0.8mm drill at the ready









Hoping to break ground this afternoon

[Stokesy44]

A few days later than planned I got into the plastic for the kit.

Unusually, it starts with the turret.

The turret comes in 2 halves. This sets off some Tiger builders but I couldn't give a monkeys. A tiny bit of filler will be required but its hardly prominent once the storage bin gets attached. Come on guys, talk about a first world problem!





Everything fits nicely and the instructions are relatively clear. Its not plug and play like Tamiya but still a pleasant straight forward build.





The gun is a series of single piece tubes so no 2 sides to glue together. There are seam lines from the mold but they are easily dealt with. I cant look at a Tiger I's gun without being reminded of something said by a British tanker after his first encounter with a Tiger - 'Its got a gun like a bloody telephone pole!'.





There's a view port that needs to go on in front of the loader's hatch and the turret mounted track spares, then its on to the running gear and those interlocking road wheels.

[Quax]

Interesting kit looking forward to watching the build, what’s the situation regarding zimmerit on these tigers?

Paul

[digger303]

Nothing like a Tiger build except maybe a Kingtiger
Keeping a eye on this one and running a comparison against a Dragon.

[Stokesy44]

Interesting kit looking forward to watching the build, what’s the situation regarding zimmerit on these tigers?

Paul

They had varying levels of zimmerit but the kit does not come with it. I dont have the skill to apply it myself so I will just ignore it. Maybe that's lazy on my part but at the end of the day I know what I can and cant do, as well as what I do and dont enjoy doing.

[Stokesy44]

Nothing like a Tiger build except maybe a Kingtiger
Keeping a eye on this one and running a comparison against a Dragon.

I think the main differences are the tracks and the price. This kit would cost 50% more of you stuck a Dragon badge on it. New tool Dragon kits come with their rubber tracks whereas this has workable indy link tracks. I will not be using them as I have a set of workable tracks that I have taken from a previous kit.

[digger303]

Nothing like a Tiger build except maybe a Kingtiger
Keeping a eye on this one and running a comparison against a Dragon.

I think the main differences are the tracks and the price. This kit would cost 50% more of you stuck a Dragon badge on it. New tool Dragon kits come with their rubber tracks whereas this has workable indy link tracks. I will not be using them as I have a set of workable tracks that I have taken from a previous kit.

STASH comes to the rescue now for me saving me money as I picked up a few Dragon Tigers including post for a average price of $50 aud back when our money was good. I just hope the decals stand up to the test of time.
Most of mine have magic tracks which I'm not really keen on, but better than that yellow garbage they issue. I've done deals to pick up other plastic tracks to replace those so I should be good to go on them.

I'd have a go at zim at least once if I could find a excellent product to use.

[Stokesy44]

I added the viewport and the track hangers to the turret.

The hangers are held on the sprue in the exact shape required for adding to the turret. It was simply a case of cutting the section of sprue out, attaching the hangers to the turret then cutting away the unwanted sprue.





Then it was onto the wheels. It took a bit of checking to make sure the right wheels went on in the right order. The end result looks pretty good to me.













Drive sprockets are beautifully detailed



Next up is the back end then its on to the main deck

[digger303]

Pretty sharp work.
I do have a question about the way you do your armour.
Do you assemble all the pieces then come back and sand the nubs off after your have all the main pieces together ?
Reason why I ask is in the first pic they are very obvious. I do it differently sanding as I go in batches....I'll do mine a better way if there is a way.

[Stokesy44]

Pretty sharp work.
I do have a question about the way you do your armour.
Do you assemble all the pieces then come back and sand the nubs off after your have all the main pieces together ?
Reason why I ask is in the first pic they are very obvious. I do it differently sanding as I go in batches....I'll do mine a better way if there is a way.

To which picture are you referring? I try to sand off nubs before gluing except on very small parts (grab handles) that are easier to sand or shave once attached. If you can see nubs on larger parts its because I have missed them!

[digger303]

Pretty sharp work.
I do have a question about the way you do your armour.
Do you assemble all the pieces then come back and sand the nubs off after your have all the main pieces together ?
Reason why I ask is in the first pic they are very obvious. I do it differently sanding as I go in batches....I'll do mine a better way if there is a way.

To which picture are you referring? I try to sand off nubs before gluing except on very small parts (grab handles) that are easier to sand or shave once attached. If you can see nubs on larger parts its because I have missed them!

Oh Ok
I was looking at the wheels all upside down. I won't mention it again

[Stokesy44]

Pretty sharp work.
I do have a question about the way you do your armour.
Do you assemble all the pieces then come back and sand the nubs off after your have all the main pieces together ?
Reason why I ask is in the first pic they are very obvious. I do it differently sanding as I go in batches....I'll do mine a better way if there is a way.

To which picture are you referring? I try to sand off nubs before gluing except on very small parts (grab handles) that are easier to sand or shave once attached. If you can see nubs on larger parts its because I have missed them!

Oh Ok
I was looking at the wheels all upside down. I won't mention it again

Oh I see, no worries. They're mostly smooth, although there's a couple that could do with some more work!! I use nippers to cut the wheels off the sprues then a blade and sanding sticks to sand them smooth. 2 of the outers on the near side will get cleaned up and I'll double check the rest.

[Stokesy44]

Some nice progress today. Worked on the back of the beast with the rear panel and the exhaust stacks.

It was here that I encountered the first fit issue. The lower section of the rear panel is too wide (or the sides of the tank at the rear are too narrow). Its about 0.75mm too narrow so I ended up sanding the sides and the rear panel in order to get it to fit. Not majorly difficult but still a surprise nonetheless. Once I had done this the fit was fine.

Point of note, the Tiger 1's exhaust caps sit on 6 little columns (or pins), I've built kits where these little columns have to be attached to the end cap individually than attached to the stack. Much swearing and sweating is involved in this process so it was gratifying to see this kit has the pins already attached to the end cap as a single part so attachment is a 10 second job



I then test fitted the upper deck to check the alignment. The kit is beautifully square. Well done RFM.







Tested the turret attachment. Its VERY tight and I dont fancy being able to attach it once the deck is attached as it needs pressure from below so the 2 retaining lugs can get under the lip of the turret ring. I need to use a metal file to reduce the height of the lugs by a fraction then it should be fine.





Side armour panels attached. One the real thing I assume this was the same in that its one piece of perfectly flat steel that would have been welded on. I dread to think what it would have weighed.





Next up is the deck or the front section - depending on whether I go rogue versus the order of the instructions.

[digger303]

Lovely, got another question

The exhaust guards, I've always wondered why they were so heavy is it purely for protection in a potential weak spot or was it for heat dispersal ?

[Stokesy44]

Lovely, got another question

The exhaust guards, I've always wondered why they were so heavy is it purely for protection in a potential weak spot or was it for heat dispersal ?

They were for two-fold protection, guarding the exhausts themselves and the holes in the rear plate where the exhausts ran from the engine but also to protect against impacts when reversing into things such as trees or buildings.

[digger303]

Lovely, got another question

The exhaust guards, I've always wondered why they were so heavy is it purely for protection in a potential weak spot or was it for heat dispersal ?

They were for two-fold protection, guarding the exhausts themselves and the holes in the rear plate where the exhausts ran from the engine but also to protect against impacts when reversing into things such as trees or buildings.

Never thought about backing into things.

[Kevthemodeller]

Oh this is going to be a belter

[Stokesy44]

Oh this is going to be a belter

Lets hope so!!

Carried on working on the upper deck. Everything is on now except the brackets for the the tow cables - more on that later on.





Frontal armour fitted nicely. That classic boxy Tiger look







It certainly looks like a Tiger!





The kit comes with metal cables for the tow cables but, as I've said before, I really dont like using them as I find it impossible to get them to lay properly. Thankfully I retained some unused plastic ones from a previous Dragon kit and after some adjusting of the shape they will fit nicely.





I need to attach the PE radiator grills next and test fit the tracks but that's about it before priming.

[digger303]

Just seem to have flown through this kit.
RFM make a sharp kit

[Stokesy44]

RFM make a sharp kit

I have to agree. The quality of the plastic is top notch. There's a bit of vagueness in the instructions and a few questionable engineering decisions but overall a solid 9 out of 10. I would definitely buy RFM in the future depending on the subject and the price. This is my third kit from them (Sherman Firefly & M1 Abrams) and they have all been of very good quality. I have Tiger I in the stash with full interior and the detail is stunning. I would need a few stiff drinks before I started on it though!

[Stokesy44]

The build phase is finished. I will add the cables after painting.



PE grills added without too much drama.





Spare tracks added to the turret. There are no location points so I checked and double checked the instructions as to how they hang on the turret sides and used my mark 1 eyeball to try and make sure they were vertical and evenly spaced. Once added, I then glued the lower supports in place and mated them to the track pieces.

I used the kit track links and I'm so glad I'm not using them for the actual tracks. The guide horns are tiny and impossible to sand until they are are attached to the tracks. I would have have gone insane if I had to do that 184 times to build the track lengths.





The tracks went on without too much bother. They're a bit tight but ok.

[digger303]

Tracks look good as does it all and I don't know why, but I like the back end of a tiger more than the front.

[Stokesy44]

Tracks look good as does it all and I don't know why, but I like the back end of a tiger more than the front.

I agree! The mudguards still need to go on but that will be after painting as I will need to remove the tracks for the spray booth.

The rear end is even busier on earlier Tigers with the air cleaners and things like the tow hooks etc.

What would top it off though is a really offensive bumper sticker!

[Stokesy44]

I changed my mind about the tow cables. I figured I would need to mess around with a fair bit of glue and a lot of handling to get the cables on and that would have messed up the paintwork. I chose to add them and was proved right, they needed a lot of fenagling to get them to sit right and a fair amount of TET to glue down the barrel cleaning rods and the 4 brackets for each rope.













Now I'm happy! Ready for primer now. The Fehrmann Tigers had interesting color schemes, they were originally gelb with field applied green and brown but it looks like they had an additional misting of green which dulled down everything. I'll have to plan the painting accordingly. And I'll also need to account for no green and brown where the side mudguards would have been

[digger303]

[Stokesy44]

Another winter build has made its way into the spray booth.

I spotted a school boy error I made during the build that needed fixing before I fired up the AB. I had glued the driver's and radio op's hatches with the hinges to the rear, not the outer side. Thankfully I was able to pop them off and reposition them without any damage.

Then it was off with the tracks and out with the Tamiya XF59 again. Same result as before - still loving Tamiya

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At the risk of sounding like a broken record..... Next up is highlights then camo then decals, oils and weathering.

[digger303]