THE DREAM

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to eithier post a comment or email me at pds30@columbia.edu - thanks!



The Aziz was built in 1983 for the United Arab Emirates. It is a fine example of an Anchor Handling Tug / Supply Vessel used for offshore oil drilling. The model is over 43 inches long (over 3 1/2 feet) and will be driven in the boat pond in Central Park, hopefully by this summer.

The above picture shows what the model should look like when completed.

Other views can be seen at www.modelslipway.com/aziz.htm

3/18/05 - I must say that there are two great decisions I made in making this model. First was buying a kit from Model Slipway - the quality is fantastic and anytime I have had any difficutly (due to my inexperience) all I had to do was pick up the phone to get advise from the folks there.

My second great decision was to buy the kit from Gold Coast Hobby in Glen Head. When you buy a model from them you are buying not only the model but help and guidance from Charlie, the owner and a very experienced model maker. Here too, all I had to do was pick up the phone and call.

THE REALITY

I have to say - 11 months later, it was a great first model and a great experience. I have had a lot of joy and frustration - it has cost a lot of money but was a lot of fun.

I don't know if the Aziz will remian in permenant drydock or not - I have to say that it is much more fun to build than to sail. I find after about 5 minutes it becomes pretty boring. When we walk through the city to the pond, we get stopped about every five paces by wide eyed kids and interested grown-ups.

See you next spring - maybe.

here it sits in my office waiting in its winter port awaiting its display case.

here is a closer shot of the model - again - completed

the final sail of the season - model is all finished

another shot of the stern

a shot of the stern fender

finished one side of the stern fenders

I began working on the rear fendering

here is the bow fendering complete

painted the lifeboat cover - one other item done

working on the fenders - I realize after looking at the photo that it looks a little droopy in the front - I pushed it up a bit

started working on the fenders -

and psinted a first coat on the lifeboat cover

worked on the anchors

and the decals

more decals

The rear gates on the main deck. Blogger seems to be working again for the time being - I haven't done any work in a number of days - Thursday I was teaching, Friday a dinner party, Saturday the Odd Couple - tonight some work. The Odd Couple was fantatic - Nathan Lane stole the show. I can't believe it got such bad reviews in the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal.

The lifeboat in place

more items on the punch list getting done

more soldering

still having problems with picasa

here is the rear gates - soldering completed

dd

more work on the masts

problem with blogger

I can't seem to post photographs - I had two more from tonight - I keep getting an error message

I tried posting pictures directly in blogger


here are some more more parts of the mast

no I did not solder it while under the influence - I merely cut the lenghts of wire to solder tomorrow

next began working on the front mast

worked on the gates on the rear main deck - I will solder tomorrow

Here is the same side completed - I finished the other side as well - one item off the punch list

fendering tyres completed on one side

I started on the tires (tyres for you in the UK) - took me four or five times before I got it the way I'd like it.

shot from a slightly different angle

The anchor winch on the bow

Another shot from a slightly different angle

Here is a picture of the winches in place - not perfect but not bad

finished the fittings on the other side. I figure there are four more main things to do and a bunch of little ones. 1. fendering 2. gates on the rear of the main deck 3. mast structure on bow 4. tires along sides of boat. Little stuff is touch up all around the deck. The anchors on the bow. Water slide transfers. various deck fittings. Figure another week - then on to the next project.

finished the second set of stairs

another view of the deck features including the stairs and handrails

Here are some barrels

I installed the railings and some of the details on the deck

the hydraulic crane in place

here is the deck in place

I fit the wooden slats into the deck, added the winches and the towing bollard

Second coat of paint on the main deck - again - easier to brush on than all the prep and cleanup with an airbrush

Glued both sets of main deck hardware - spray painted one of the top tubes - needed the other one to line up the hardware. It takes about 5 minutes to shake a can of Krylon, spray two coats of paint and come back up to the apartment. I would love to airbush but it just doesn't make much sense sometimes for all the preparation and cleanup required. I was watching a TV show and a character says that he never does a sport that takes more time to set up for than it actually takes to do such as scuba diving or skiing. I have to say that I agree.

Here I have painted the first coat on the deck - you can see a bit of white is showing on the left hand side - this is where I screwed up. I made the cross bars flush with the edges - I shouldn't have done this but by the time I realized it, it was already too late

Worked on laying out the deck hardware - here I drilled the holes and put the parts in place without gluing - I still need to paint the bar black.

Priming the main deck after fitting the wood planks - chances are I will have to further sand down the wood after painting the deck green as the paint has some thickness and the planks were pretty tight.

working on some parts of the lifeboat

More odds and end - here I am making some more parts for the main deck

working on the wood panels

trying the deck for fit

The crossbars on the main deck - glued in place

then did the vertical strips at the edges

I started working on the horizontal strips - lining up and gluing carefully

Started working on the main deck - cutting out the strips

The waterfall winch - complete - I ran out of the cord supplied with the kit so used some needlepoint floss - doesn't look that bad.

started working on the main deck - started by cutting down the main deck support to fit the opening in the deck

more black rails - also painted the steps of the ladders deck green

began by painting the top rails black

another shot - again, I could have done a much better job detailing and weathering but I would like to complete the aziz and move onto my next project www.pilotboat.blogspot.com

The waterfall winch - just about done

and more parts - I may not even paint them - the primer looks pretty good

more parts

here are some parts of the waterfall winch primed

the winches wound with rope - it isn't carefully weathered like the photograph on the box but it doesn't look bad

another part that needs to be finished

now some misc part to be prepared - here is the frame for the lifeboat

all of the parts mounted for painting

worked on the waterfall winch tonight

the other winch - complete - It turned out I lost one sub assembly when I dropped the parts last night - I guess I will have to do without it

finished the other winches - here they are completed - I just have to add the ropes

working on more parts of the waterfall winch

A closer shot of the painted parts

I primed the parts with high build primer - this was overkill - I don't think I will use it again. I then airbushed (yes, airbrushed) a coat of Humbrol gray over the primer. My airbrush was still spitting quite a bit. I thinned the paint down until it was the consistency of milk so I don't believe this was the cause. The first time I used the airbrush, I didn't clean it so well so I think it might have something to do with the needle and the nozzel. The Paache airbrush comes with some extra parts so I swapped them out. Next time we will see if things go better. Because I airbush in the cellar of my apartment building I bring down my airbrushing supplied and 1/10 hp air pump in a cardboard box. I was so concerned about the bottom of the box falling out that I lost balance of the tray with the parts on top of the box and it all came crashing down on the floor. That is why some of the parts aren't still mounted.

one part of the winch which didn't fit together so well - I used gap-filling CA then putty

here are the cleaned parts after being scrubbed with an old toothbrush in soapy water

I began clening up the parts for the waterfall winch - quite a bit of flash that has to be removed

another view - it would appear that the end is in sight!

painted another coat of matt deck green. painted a third and fourth coat of white on the rails and glued them into place - also glued some of the vents

here is the hydraulic crane - primed

here are the railings - primed white - I may not paint on another coat

still much more parts to be primed

here are various pieces of the winch waiting to be primed

I fit together the anchor winch - I don't know if I sanded off too much material but it didn't seem to fit together all that well. This is the first part of the model that I am a little dissapointed in - It required quite a bit of filing and sanding to get the parts to fit together properly.

I assembled the hydraulic crane - pieces fit together ok - next prime and paint

working on cleaning up various parts. Went to the dentist today and got a new toothbrush - so, I had an old toothbrush to clean the parts. I used soapy water and the brush to clean them off.

railings are all soldered - ready for cleaning, priming and painting

next is to wash in soapy water, prime, then paint

I started working on the hydraulic crane - it went together pretty quickly. I cleaned off the flash sanded the rough spots and drilled the holes for the hydraulics a little deeper

here is another railing I started working on - this one is a bit tricky - we will see how it comes out.

I worked on some more of the rails tonight - here you can see the progress

Here is the opposite railing ready to be soldered tomorrow night