USS Constitution by stannius - Revell - 1:96 - PLASTIC

[stannius]

I acquired the kit at a yard sale when I was a teenager. I slopped some white paint in the general vicinity of the gun port strip, then put it back in the box. I carried the kit with me for various moves (including across the country) for approximately 30 years. In March 2020, I found out I was going to be stuck at home for 2-6 weeks or so, so I set up a folding table in our living room and got started in earnest.

 

The current state is: The hull is assembled and I am working on the masts. I should get to the rigging soon (for some definitions of soon).

 

I will post some pictures I took over the years soon (hopefully for a different definition of soon).

[stannius]

Since I have more money now than I did when I was a teenager, I want to buy some aftermarket line and blocks from Syren. I would love any thoughts, for or against, about my assumptions or conclusions.

 

My measurement of the kit-supplied rigging comes in at 0.008, 0.018, 0.025 for both colors.

 

I found this list of standing rigging https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/collection-items/dimensions-of-standing-rigging-for-uss-constitution-1797/ with standing rigging sizes ranging from 4 to 17.5 inches in circumference. On the other hand, in the materials list of the Navy's 1992 restoration, they used 2" -10".  I read that the human eye isn't capable of distinguishing more than 3 sizes of scale line.

 

The running rigging supplied in the original kit is the same sizes as the standing rigging, which is not accurate. The largest running rigging would have been I think 6" circumference, assuming my hands are approximately the same size as sailors' 200 years ago.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 04:52 PM by stannius