T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Share #1 Posted December 23, 2022 Hello. This is my third experience with the iconic Revell kit, counting myself as a youngster watching my Dad build his back in '69 - '70. I've spent about two years off and on working on it to this point. When finished it will be a waterline display, with sails furled at anchor. First photos of this build log start at the point where I had the gun deck airbrushed and installed. Prowler901, Cirdan and GrandpaPhil 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #2 Posted December 23, 2022 Adding the Captain's quarters and gun deck cannons. Prowler901, GrandpaPhil and Cirdan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #3 Posted December 23, 2022 I treated the top deck installation differently than the gun deck. The notorious three piece design wasn't going to work for me so I decided to glue them up and drop it in as one unit after painting. A lot of sanding,filing and dry fitting was done to insure everything would go as smooth as possible. At this point I also dry fitted the mast's to make sure they would be straight and at the right rakes when added. I'm glad I did because they weren't even close. Prowler901, GrandpaPhil and Cirdan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #4 Posted December 23, 2022 Painting the hull. All of the painting was done by airbrushing using Vallejo colors. With the exception of the Gallery and billet. GrandpaPhil, Prowler901 and Cirdan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #5 Posted December 23, 2022 (edited) The kit's top deck guns were replaced with the excellent 3d printed carronades from Model Monkey. I regret not fully rigging them now. Edited December 25, 2022 by T. Alex GrandpaPhil, Prowler901 and Cirdan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #6 Posted December 23, 2022 Pretty much finished up with the top deck. Cirdan, Prowler901 and GrandpaPhil 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #7 Posted December 23, 2022 (edited) Adding a little detail to the ship's boat's. Edited December 23, 2022 by T. Alex Cirdan, Snug Harbor Johnny, Prowler901 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenneth Powell Posted December 23, 2022 Share #8 Posted December 23, 2022 Looks great, really good paint job. - Kenneth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #9 Posted December 23, 2022 (edited) The mast's. I decided to make the jib boom, and upper masts out of basswood as the kit's plastic ones are pretty flimsy. Edited December 23, 2022 by T. Alex Cirdan, Prowler901 and GrandpaPhil 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #10 Posted December 23, 2022 (edited) After insuring that all of the masts fit together well I finally glue in the lowers. Edited December 23, 2022 by T. Alex Cirdan, GrandpaPhil and Prowler901 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #11 Posted December 23, 2022 Time for the standing rigging. I decided to not use a lot of the kit's parts for the rigging of the model. Mainly the moulded shrouds, deadeyes. I did use the kit's channels by modifying them. The chainplates were horrible however so those were discarded. I copped out and went with the later chain plate design for the sake of sanity. The deadeyes I used are 3.5 mm (probably to big) but I don't think they look to way out of scale. Prowler901, Cirdan and GrandpaPhil 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #12 Posted December 23, 2022 I apologize for the double upload of some of the pics. I'm not sure what I'm doing to cause it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #13 Posted December 23, 2022 Rigging the lower and upper shrouds. Cirdan, GrandpaPhil and Prowler901 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #14 Posted December 23, 2022 Backstays Cirdan, GrandpaPhil and Prowler901 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #15 Posted December 23, 2022 The lower main and fore stays. I replicated these the best I could from photos I've looked at. I've since added thicker saddle rope. shipman, GrandpaPhil and Prowler901 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #16 Posted December 23, 2022 Mizzen stays. GrandpaPhil, shipman and Prowler901 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #17 Posted December 23, 2022 Bowsprit rigging. shipman, Cirdan, GrandpaPhil and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #18 Posted December 23, 2022 All of the standing rigging is done. shipman, Prowler901 and GrandpaPhil 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #19 Posted December 23, 2022 The lower and top mast yards test fitted. shipman, GrandpaPhil, Prowler901 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #20 Posted December 23, 2022 On to the upper ratlines. Ugh! I'm going to hold off on doing the lowers untill a lot of the running rigging is done. I've had to modify my workbench to do the upper ratlines. This is so I can rest my elbows on a surface for steadiness. This catches things up to where I'm at on this build presently. I apologize for rushing this log up to this point. There was a lot of things done to the kit to fix things that I haven't mentioned. But we're up to speed now. GrandpaPhil, Prowler901, Cirdan and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #21 Posted December 23, 2022 Last year for my birthday my wife surprised me with the Heller 1/100 Victory kit. I guess she wants to just keep me in the workroom forever! Lol. I couldn't stand it any longer and had to pull out the hull. The Victory next to Constitution. Prowler901, shipman, GrandpaPhil and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share #22 Posted December 23, 2022 2 hours ago, Kenneth Powell said: Looks great, really good paint job. - Kenneth Thanks Kenneth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share #23 Posted December 24, 2022 Backtracking with some more photos of the build over the last couple of years. Prowler901, GrandpaPhil and Cirdan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share #24 Posted December 24, 2022 (edited) While doing a bit of research I read that there's good argument Constitution not having hinged gun port lids originally. Also that the practice was to sail with the guns run out, except in adverse weather. I don't know, but that bit of info was all I needed to make the decision to eliminate the lids. I filled in the moulded notches for them. I also filled in the bridle ports. Edited December 24, 2022 by T. Alex Prowler901 and GrandpaPhil 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share #25 Posted December 24, 2022 (edited) On my kit the decks were very poor fitting to the hull. I spent a lot of time trimming, sanding and tweaking the decks before glueing them in. As a result clamps were only needed amid ship. I was happy with that. Edited December 24, 2022 by T. Alex Prowler901 and GrandpaPhil 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share #26 Posted December 24, 2022 (edited) How I fixed the poorly fitting masts. The mast's rakes were way off on my kit. I made new "steps" from styrene and glued them over the moulded ones on the gun deck. Then it was a matter of tweaking the holes till I was satisfied with how the masts looked before glueing on the top deck. Edited December 25, 2022 by T. Alex GrandpaPhil and Prowler901 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share #27 Posted December 24, 2022 A bit of added detail for the kit's charlie noble. Prowler901 and GrandpaPhil 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share #28 Posted December 24, 2022 Airbrushing the Model Monkey 3D printed carronades. I used these for all 24 ports. GrandpaPhil and Prowler901 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share #29 Posted December 24, 2022 How I'm modifying the kit's rigging blocks. GrandpaPhil and Prowler901 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Alex Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share #30 Posted December 24, 2022 Uh oh. Wife said captain Hull might have scurvy...lol. Prowler901 and GrandpaPhil 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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