In September 2005 Damen shipyard started building a new tugboat for TUG MALTA Ltd. This tugboat is a type ASD 3111 developed by the yards own facilities and will be named PAWLINA. TUG MALTA ordered some alteration compared to other ASD 3111 tugboats. The casko has the same particulars as the tugboats from Smit International( e.g. Smit Clyde, Smit Humber ) in the port of Rotterdam. Also the main engines will be of the same kind. The main difference is located on the topdeck. The Pawlina will be fitted with a FiFi-1 System manufactured by Skum. Further changes you will find on the bulwark, the railing on the roof of the deckhouse and on the forecastle deck. Delivery is scheduled for February 2006. Due to the building process the term for the estimated delivery will be observed. The ASD 3111 type is one of standardised tugboat types which are stored in the harbour of the shipyard. The customer can choose which kind of tugboat and which equipment is needed for the task. Additional to the new ASD 3111 TUG MALTA Ltd. ordered a second tugboat but of the type 2411. The delivery is scheduled for December 2006.

About two years ago I had the chance to a semi-kit of an ASD 3111. This kit was offered by the good friend of mine Jan. Normally I donīt like model kits, but this time it was a gift from my wife and the quality is really excellent. The kit is in the scale of 1:50 and the box contains only some parts. These parts are the wheelhouse, the superstructure, the hull, a CD with about 230 photos of the Smit Clyde, different kinds of stickers and a drawing of the details A3 and a AO drawing with all the auxillery equipment, winches, bollards, railings ect,ect. The quality of the vacuumformed parts of the kit are really fanstastic. At no parts is the thickness of the material below 1mm. All is strong enough to cope with a hard day in the tugboats life. Like every vacuumformed plastic the edges of this kit are not really sharp. The edges have a small rounding. This was my first job. I glued some Polystyrolstrips on these edges an sanded them until the edges were as sharp as on the original. The decks consists of a 1mm thick PS-deckplate. In this plate I cut the openings to maintain the motors and the rc-components. The decks of my Pawlina have different heights. To fix these decks I used superglue and from inside I used 2 component glue. I bought a pair of Schottel-units from a big german modelmanufacturer. I heard about the bad quality of these parts, but I had no choice. But I will never buy these units again, because they are too expensive for the quality. The drilled hole in the bevel gear is not exact so the gear rattle very loud. Nevertheless I glued these units on a plate and fitted this part into the hull. Now it was time for the first test in the bathtub. That showed the hull can carry a lot weight, so could use a accumulator with a much higher capacity than expected. So the time for sailing will be longer. For the railing I used brass strips and wires. The stacions are made of right-angled brass 0,8mm x 0,4mm. The handrail consists of a brass wire with a diameter of 0,8mm. Two brass wires ( 0,5mm ) go through every stancion. I fixed the stancions side by side with sticky tape on a small board. To make sure that all stancions have the holes at equall distange. After this I put all pieces together an glued the stancions into position. The last step was to solder the handrail on the stancions. Next I built the interieur of the wheelhouse. Small furniture in the scale 1:50. and last I glued some windows in the wheelhouse. I thought about the colour of the windows. If I had used shaded windows I would not have needed the furniture. The bulwark is made of 0,5mm PS-plate. For the bow and the stern I cut out some templates from cardboard. The bulwark stachions are also made of PS-plate and have a small piece of brass wire on the outer edge. The upper edge of the bulwarks are made of a PS-wire with a diameter of 2mm.

In the beginning of building the model I used the plans and the photos which are parts of the semi-kit. At this time it was going to be a small Smit Clyde. But mid Sptember I got my tugboat magazine and saw that TUG MALTA Ltd. had ordered a new ASD 3111. In addition to the message a small coloured drawing was included. On this drawing you could see the differences between ASD 3111 Smit Clyde and the ASD 3111 Pawlina. at that moment I decided to build the Pawlina. In the beginning of October I got some detail photos of the carcass taken by my friend Wim. These photos showed me the differences between the tugboats and what I had wrong until that day. A lot of things I had to remove and build new. The complete part of the bulwark at the workdeck, the bulwark besides the superstructure, the railing and the ladder at the fore end of the deckshouse and the upper edge of the bulwark at the bow I had to remove and build new. Due to the weight of the model I could build on the table in the living room, without getting in trouble with my wife. On the railing at the fore end of the deckshouse you will find a control box for the bowwinch. This controlbox I built out of PS and integrated this part into the railing by drilling hole in both sides and inserted the brass wires from the railing in to the box. The ladder from the forecastle deck to the bridgedeck is also made of brass wires. I built all the bulkhead of 0,5mm plates and glued these on a slightly smaller piece of PS-plate. All this I glued into position on the deckhouse. The gutters above the bulkhead are made of double -T- profil (PS), which I converted into a L-angle. The upper edges of the funnels are made of small pieces of plate. For building the air grilles I use very small stairplates. Above the grilles driprails are fitted.

In November 2005 the big dutch shipping fair Rotterdam Maritime took place and Wim asked me to visit him again. My wife and I traveled to the Netherland and visited both the shipping fair and the shipyard. There I saw the Original of the Pawlina and took further photos. During my stay I could see what had happend since the last photos. On the first drawing I saw a cradle for a workboat, but I couldīnt imagine how it would work. Furthermore I was able measure the bulwark and the doors in bulwark. These are further aft on the Pawlina. Beside the deckshosue there are two additional doors in the bulwark. These doors are used during man over board maneuvers. On the railings of the deckshouse there are two davits, part to this system. With these davits and a small winch you can pick up the men out of the water. The davits I built of brass and soldert the parts together. The doors in the bulwark are made of plastic, again. Bollards are located at the forecastle deck and the workdecks. The bow bollard has two towing fairleads, the stern one only one. The main problem was that the fairleads are not round but they have an eliptical form. So I had to cut these by hand using a proxxon. I glued the fairleads to the PS-tubes and and fitted the whole part on the deck. For the bow bollard I drilled a hole in the deck. I ptu the bollard in this hole to enhance the strength. The "furniture" in the wheelhouse is also made of PS. I glued all the parts into the wheelhouse and painted it all in a very nice blue. The first mast was made of small PS-tubes, but the brass ladder was bought in the modelers shop. The safety cage is made of small PS-strips. The railing on the topdeck is the same as the deckshouse.

You can see enough on the photos during the construction phasis taken in November. So I only built the fittings which I could clearly see on these photos. These are the following parts: bulwark stancions, bollards, escape hatches, funnels, air grilles etc.. Also in November I got an invitation to take part in the test sail which was scheduled for april next years. I stopped the building because I did not want to make more mistakes. At the trials I will have all the time to take lots of photos and take some measurements. Fortunately during the trials I could see no differences between my model and the big Pawlina. During my time on board I took a lot of photos of the work-boat crane and the davit. Just after returning home I restarted to built the model. I can remove the deckshouse from the deck, so I had to find a solution to fit the davit to the deckshouse. I glued a very thin plate of PS at the lower edge of the deckshouse and glued the legs of the davit onto this plate. The crane is made of PS-tubes. The bow fendering is fastened with some straps to the hull. These straps are connected with bolts which can be tighten with a nut from inside forecastle deck. Each nut is recessed in the bulwark. The recesses consists of a small pieces of PS-tubes I glued in the bulwark. The winch and the drums are made of plastic. The basis of this winch was the drawing, some photos and some outlines with dimensions. An operation of this winch is not provided. I think PS is not strong enough for this task. In the meantime I fitted the thrusters and connected these with the motors. Additional I rebuilt my RC-Unit with levers like in the wheelhouse of a tugboat. This worked very well on my work bench but when testing my Pawlina on the lake. I was very disappionted, because the model was not only half as strong as expected. The used motors didnīt have enough rpm. She moved like the original, but slow, very slow.

In the meantime I bought two other motors and fitted them into the hull. Now my Pawlina has the right speed and bollard pull. But there is a new problem. The used thruster were of a very bad quality ( see above ). The volume of noise raises with the higher rpm of the motors. My Pawlina sounds like a floating coffee mill!! Due to the lower rpm with old motors the noise wasnīt so loud, but now it was unbearable. The new motors have a higher need of current so time for sailing my model decreased. But the hole in the deck under the deckshouse is large enough to change the accumulator within secounds. After all this work I started to build the exhaust and connections behind the bulwark. It was a lot of work, because so many different kinds I had to build. How big, the location and colour I could see on the photos. On the drawing of the kit all needed parts are mapped, but only for a Smit Clyde or Smit Humber. These types differ a lot from my Pawlina. To fit the fender I glued some eye bolts on the hull. The fendering is made of rubber. In the place where I live there is a small company which manufactures this rubber. I can take all the needed parts for less money from the scrap container.

I went on with building the winch. I fitted the levers for the brakes. These levers are made of PS-plate with a thickness of 0,3mm which I cut in strips. The hydraulic cylinders of the brakes made of plastic tubes. The towing hook on the work deck was a real challenge. The towing hook for the Pawlina was built by Mampaey. It is a Quick release disk towing hook and the hook on my model must have the same body structure like the original hook. After working for months on my model. I started to build a new mast. The old one was not to scale, so I decided to built a new one by using brass. I know this kind of construction from my tugboat model Ahti, but her mast is in scale 1:20. The ladder stringer for the mast, the ladder to the work-boat I bought from a company. They do chemical etching and the quality is really good. Than I soldered the fittings of the lifebouys to the railing and bend all the door handles and glued these into position. Before painting the hull I sanded it with a 800-paper. The hull beneath the waterline is in a red matt colour, (anti fouling paint). Above the waterline the hul and bulwark are in a dark blue. It looks like a very dark violett. Than I modified the Schottelunits. I removed the nozzles and shaped the new brass propeller. I built a new nozzles out of a drinking bottle for babies. I cut this bottle in rings. At one edge I glued a strip of plastic. Than I covered the part with thin plate of plastic. At the end I only had to cut a radius at the side of the nozzles where the water flow in. To glue the nozzles to the thruster I cut templates from cardboard with the inner diameter of the nozzles. I shifted these templates on the propeller shaft and the nozzles I shifted on the templates. So it was easy to glue the nozzles to the thruster in the right position. In the centre of the propeller I drilled two holes.and cut a thread. So I could fix the propeller with grub screws to the shaft. I was very suprised when I did the next test sail. The thrusters are not as loud as before. I didnīt change anything at the gears. I think the new propellers are the reason for the greater silence. The steps of all stairs are made of a special plate with holes in it. The steps of the model are made from 0,5mm PS-plate and the holes were drilled with 0,5mm drill. It was not very easy to glue the steps between the stringers of the stairs. The dummies for the hinges of the bulkheads are made of plastic wire with a diameter of 1mm. I cut 1,5mm slices of this wire and glued these very small parts at the edges of the bulkheads.

I have enjoyed making the model and also writing this article ,should you have any questions on making the model or the kit please use the contact form.