"Senior moment" Rob? OP posted up front that he wants to avoid getting a laptop. Hence the idea of a tape machine. Happily 'we' seem to have convinced him against that idea.Ae we not making this very complicated? If hes going away for three months, and is taking a laptop, then just buying a zoom or tascam recorder with stereo mics, a cable and a few sd cards would let you record, snd with even a freeby daw or cheap one, edit and tweak what the recorder captures. They've got a mic stand hole on them too. Job done, reliable and simple workflow.
Yes, a modest laptop and UMC204HD with Reaper and couple of mics would see him setup. A small fly in the ointmernt might be if he wants to do overdubs the latency might be too high? Can be a bit of a lottery. But then I have never used one of those digital multi-trackers, might have the same problem?
Dave.