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USS Constitution by EricWilliamMarshall - FINISHED - Revell - 1:196 - PLASTIC


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242807713_Revell_196_USS_Constitution.jpg.b71c321498c52f5b5ccef5400e9aad88.jpg

I recently discovered ship models (and this site)! I've been lurking and reading for the last few weeks and I am diving in (in the shallow end). So here goes nothing!

Edited by EricWilliamMarshall
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Thanks VTHokiEE, GrandpaPhil, and DanO for the encouragement! The Sharpie Schooner and the Victory look wonderful; thanks for sharing the logs! It looks like Midwest (the maker of the Sharpie kit) has stopped making those kits. :( The Constitution is my introduction to thinking about rigging. I have a partial plastic kit of Heller's HMS Victory 1:100 (and I was just looking at GrandpaPhil's build last week before I became a member!). If I hang-on long enough to finish those, then I'll try something wooden. The Sharpie kit looks like a reasonable starting point, but I have many miles to travel before such decisions.

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First minor disaster - two of the lower guns popped out! (Third from the right was the tricky one).

I tried to use tweezers but that didn't work. I hadn't put on the transom yet, so I tried with long tweezers. No luck, I couldn't 'release' the gun once in the right spot. In the end, I used a bamboo skewer with a blob of mounting putty (fun tack) and that worked. (Of course, the blob stuck to the gun. :) ) UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1cc79.jpg.b53c0f8f38f0d7cfd6f9ad3c95134802.jpg

 

 

 

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1cc7a.jpg

Edited by EricWilliamMarshall
double of the same pic
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Hi Eric,  I built this model as a kid, so much fun even then, but it was just glue it and paint it,  built from the box,  rigging and everything. 

Yours already looks 100% better than mine ever did. 

Keep up the good work. 

Cheers 

Edited by Edwardkenway

Current builds;

 Henry Ramey Upcher 1:25

Providence whaleboat- 1:25     HMS Winchelsea 1764 1:48 

Completed:

HM Cutter Sherbourne- 1:64- finished    Triton cross section scratch- 1:60 - finished 

Non ship:  SBD-3 Dauntless 1:48 Hasegawa -FINISHED

 

 

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Eric,

 

Like Edwardkenway, I built this model right out of the box and followed the rigging plan that was included (back in the late '60's) - have enjoyed displaying it

for all the decades since. Enjoy, it's a fun build and yours is looking great and I hope you keep it (intact!) as long as I have mine.

Old Ironsides.jpg

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18 hours ago, Edwardkenway said:

it was just glue it and paint it,  built from the box,  rigging and everything.

Umm, that's the plan. :) Hunting around modelshipworld has inspired me to take more care, when possible. ;) Thanks for the encouragement!

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17 hours ago, Shotlocker said:

I hope you keep it (intact!) as long as I have mine.

Wow! She looks great! Feel free to share some more photos! It looks like you didn't use the 'stock' ratlines. Am I correct? (I realize it may have been a while, no worries if the such details have faded in the haze of glory of a finished model.) I hope anything I work on is around in fifty years!

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1 hour ago, EricWilliamMarshall said:
20 hours ago, Edwardkenway said:

it was just glue it and paint it,  built from the box,  rigging and everything.

Umm, that's the plan. :) Hunting around modelshipworld has inspired me to take more care, when possible. ;) Thanks for the encouragement!

Eric what I meant was as a kid, impatience took over and my model was thrown together,  no thought about upgrading or re-modelling. Same with the rigging just used whatever was supplied. No offence intended. 👍😉

Current builds;

 Henry Ramey Upcher 1:25

Providence whaleboat- 1:25     HMS Winchelsea 1764 1:48 

Completed:

HM Cutter Sherbourne- 1:64- finished    Triton cross section scratch- 1:60 - finished 

Non ship:  SBD-3 Dauntless 1:48 Hasegawa -FINISHED

 

 

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11 hours ago, Edwardkenway said:

No offence intended.

None taken! I was being silly; as a newbie here my giving ' no thought about upgrading or re-modelling.' Also the same 'with the rigging just used whatever was supplied.' The goal is merely to complete the model and get a taste of dealing with the fiddlely strings, knots and the like. 

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Thank you, Eric. As to to using the stock ratlines, yes, I did indeed use them. Here are three more photos of the Constitution and one of the Thermopylae,

which I finished in 1960 when I was 13. Won a first place trophy with her at a USNR model boat show in Toledo the next year.

 

Keep up the good work, your Connie is lookin' fine.

Old Ironsides 1.jpg

Old Ironsides 2.jpg

Old Ironsides 3.jpg

Thermopylae.jpg

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Shotlocker, beautiful!! I'm building the baby version (1/196). If I survive this one, the next will be bigger. :)  The photos were already useful to me!

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Eric,

Your paintwork is very good. The flat black seems to make everything look more to scale.

Shotlocker, I do not know what to say, your rigging at 13 is better than what I can do after forty years.  

Scott

 

Current Builds:  Revell 1:96 Thermopylae Restoration

                           Revell 1:96 Constitution COMPLETED

                           Aeropiccola HMS Endeavor IN ORDINARY

Planned Builds: Scientific Sea Witch

                            Marine Models USF Essex

                            

 

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I’ve started to rig the model. And have chosen the “detailed” path of the two options presented in the instructions. It is very slow going. Each bit of string taking several attempts (and removing it and trying again). Part of the learning curve I assume. The bow poles broke off under the slightest tension of the string. So I have changed how they attach to the greater hull for greater strength. I’m hopeful that things speed up, otherwise the next post will at Thanksgiving to share the next four bits of string added to the ship! :)

6F9E00A5-915B-427D-ADE2-EE97CDBAD9DB.jpeg

DE50A5DA-F6FB-43E9-BC5F-579CC77CBC6E.jpeg

64FEBEC3-80BB-455B-9FD5-904854255D07.jpeg

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Well, Eric, I'm a bit chagrined...I saw the box cover art at the beginning of your build log and my mind said, "1/96th scale", so I didn't pay attention to any

background bits in your photos until this morning when I noticed some significant differences in the stern details of your model as compared to mine. Then

I saw the ship sitting on an open book. Sheesh. My bad.

 

Anyway, as for painting fine lines and strips, all I can advise is to use a very fine artists brush with a steady hand and perhaps some magnification. And practice!

I usually cut the rigging lines with nail clippers if I can reach the spot with them, otherwise I use a very sharp no. 11 blade. I also often tie knots using tweezers.

Hope this helps.

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No worries! I also stumbled over the issue of scale myself when looking at the other build logs. 1/96 and 1/196 are pretty close at a glance.

 

 As a side note, regarding the stem, the model has the figure (of Andrew Jackson, I believe) in the kit. The photos on the box show that painted with blue for the jacket and black for the hat and so on. The photo of the actual figurehead theses days show only two colors. And older photos suggest a gilt covering. 

 

The painting on the box top doesn’t have the figurehead, same as in your model! The model’s molded details seem to match one of the 20th century configurations, while the photos on the model box cover show an older set up with more gilt work, which again are a mismatch for the box top painting. Nor do these details match the current ship sitting in Boston harbor.

I didn’t realize those mismatches fully for quilt a while and my paintwork show a little bit on confusion as a result, showing a hypothetical USS Constitution than any one period in particular. ;) 

 

My last photos are missing Mr. Jackson, due to my manhandling during the attempt to rig the bow poles and their subsequent repair but he will return shortly. :)

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Eric, here are three photos of the original box/art for that kit (1956) with the plans. Interestingly enough, in photo 2, you can see a sailor sawing the Jackson figurehead's

head off, and the jacket is colored red. I'm not familiar with that little story, maybe someone on here can enlighten us on it? That model, by the way, was the first plastic

sailing ship I ever built and I still have its remains; thought I'd restore it someday but probably won't ever get to it....

Old Ironsides box 1.jpg

Old Ironsides box 2.jpg

Old Ironsides box 3.jpg

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