USS Constitution by rvchima - Mamoli - 1:93

[rvchima]

I visited the USS Constitution ship and museum in Boston Harbor in 2017. I knew then that I wanted to make a model of the ship, but it took me a while to get around to it. 

There are a LOT of Constitution builds on Model Ship World representing kits by several companies in different scales.

Company	Scale	Length
Billings boats	1:100	36”
Bluejacket Shipcrafters	1:96	40”
Mamoli/Dusek	1:93	38”
Model Shipways	1:76	48”

I know, the scales x lengths don't quite add up. The Bluejacket numbers give a longer ship than the rest.

 

Most of the build logs on MSW are for the Model Shipways kit. It looks like an excellent kit, but I just can't deal with a 4 foot long model that would need an even bigger case. I decided to go with the Mamoli/Dusek kit, which was offered by Model Shipways but unavailable when I started looking. So I got on their daily email list. The Mamoli kit popped up eventually, and then before Christmas they offered all imported kits at half price. I snatched one up and gave it to myself for Christmas.

 

For your information, Mamoli models was a well-know Italian producer of model ship kits from the 1980s through 2014, when their company was completely destroyed by fire. Daniel Dusek from the Czech Republic acquired the license to produce all Mamoli kits in 2016, starting with the Mini-Mamoli line. There is an interesting thread by Mr. Dusek here.

 

Model Shipways / Model Expo recently took over production and distribution of the Mamoli/Dusek line in the US. Since Model Shipways already has their own kit of the Constitution, It will be interesting to see if they convert the Mamoli version to their own line.

Edited January 12 by rvchima
additional information

[rvchima]

What's in the Box

There aren't many build logs of of the Mamoli/Dusek  Constitution on MSW so it might be useful to show some details of what's included.

Everything is tightly packed in a sturdy box with a nice photo on the front.

 

14 pages of double-sided plans and instructions, 16.5" x 11.75"

 

7 pages of single-sided plans 16" x 23"

 

2 full-sized drawings plans 46" x 33"

 

4 sheets of heavy laser-cut plywood. I've already used some and the laser cutting is perfect.

 

3 sheets of lighter laser-cut plywood. I think that the 30 small parts on the bottom board will make up into gun ports. The older Mamoli kit had cast metal gun ports which were unpopular with builders. These ports should be easier to  work with, and cheaper for Dusek to manufacture.

Several sheets of miscellaneous wooden parts

 

4 bundles of planks and dowels

 

A box of cast parts including the ships boats

 

Rigging line, blocks, deadeyes, and cannon. Here's my first concern - there is no black line for the standing rigging. Looks like I will be ordering black line eventually. I don't know what the gauze is for.

 

Some photo etched parts, flags, and a roll of copper foil. The older Mamoli kit came with a bag of green wood chips that were supposed to look like copper plates but looked more like shingles. The copper foil will look much better, but I already have three rolls of copper foil with printed nail patterns like I used on my Sphinx.

 

 

[rvchima]

Keel

The first few words on page 1 of the instructions say:

"Pin clown on a flat wooden board ..."

I looked unsuccessfully through all the parts for the clown, but finally realized that the instructions have some errors in translation. 

So I pinned down the keel parts and thought "That's still going to be a big model." But not much bigger than my Sphinx, at least until I add the bowsprit.

Incidentally, the actual Sphinx ship was about 167' long, while the actual Constitution is much bigger at about 305' long.

 

I added the 19 bulkheads and two longitudinal supports. The laser cutting was perfect but I did have to file the laser char out of all the slots for the longitudnal supports. It's pretty clear that Dusek has modified the internal structure but not updated the drawings.

[rvchima]

Decks

The planked areas in this photo are false sub-decks that will barely be visible through multiple, tiny hatches in the main deck. The instructions didn't say anything about planking them, but why not?

 

Just to illustrate how good the laser cutting is on this kit, the main deck pieces fit on perfectly with absolutely no cutting, fitting, or sanding. See all the tiny hatch openings? I'm SO glad that I planked the sub decks. 😜

[GGibson]

Good start, Rod!  No "clowning" around on this build!! Ha! 

[g8rfan]

Welcome to the Connie group Rod. You are off to a great build. Look forward to following along. As slow as I am, I'm sure you will catch up to me soon and I'll have someone new to "steal" ideas from.

[Kelp]

I have the older pre-Fire version of this Mamoli model kit, but still have it on my future projects list.  The laser sheets look to be a nice improvement compared to the older version parts.  I also like that the manufacturer has changed the gunports from castings to wood.  I’m planning on using wood for my gunports instead of the castings.  

 One thing that has caught my attention on my version of the kit is the way the bow is constructed.  The 

Model  Shipways version appears more like the actual ship, so I will try to convert the bow on my ship using the Model Shipways method.

 

Good luck on your build.  I’ll be following and look forward to your updates.

 

Don

[rvchima]

Checking the Masts

Although kit instructions never mention this, I learned a long time ago that this is a good time to check that the bowsprit and masts fit and are well supported.

The bowsprit, main, and mizzen masts fit perfectly with just a little enlargement of the holes in the deck. They all extended into notches in the keel and are nicely supported.

 

But there was no absolutely support for the fore mast. This seems to be an oversight in Dusek's revision of the kit.

I added a block of dense balsa and drilled a hole at the same angle as the main mast.

 

Now the masts are all aligned and solid.

[rvchima]

Frank (g8rfan) and Don (Kelp),

I will keep an eye on your work. aIt will be interesting to compare the different versions of the Mamoli kit to the Bluejacket kit.

[JSGerson]

Welcome aboard!

 

Quote

Keel

The first few words on page 1 of the instructions say:

"Pin clown on a flat wooden board ..."

I looked unsuccessfully through all the parts for the clown, but finally realized that the instructions have some errors in translation.

Although I'm constructing the MS model (with some kit bashing) I do have the pre-fire Mamoli plans & instructions and looked up the "clown" reference on my plans. It was not an error in translation, but poor printing. The correct word is "down" -> "Pin down on a flat wooden board ..."

 

I don't know if you have researched any of the recent and past Mamoli builders of the Conny, but you might want to check BruceWayne426 in progress build and Bill Edgin's (Robnbill) completed build. It looks like you are off to a good start.

 

I look forward to your future posts.

 

Jon

[rvchima]

On 1/15/2026 at 11:09 AM, JSGerson said:

Although I'm constructing the MS model (with some kit bashing) I do have the pre-fire Mamoli plans & instructions and looked up the "clown" reference on my plans. It was not an error in translation, but poor printing. The correct word is "down" -> "Pin down on a flat wooden board ..."

 

I don't know if you have researched any of the recent and past Mamoli builders of the Conny, but you might want to check BruceWayne426 in progress build and Bill Edgin's (Robnbill) completed build. It looks like you are off to a good start.

 

I look forward to your future posts.

 

Jon

Hi Jon,

 

I searched through most of the Constitution builds on MSW before I decided to take a chance on the updated Mamoli kit, and I have skimmed through all of the ones that you mentioned.

 

Maybe it wasn't obvious that I was being sarcastic about the clown reference. Although the new, laser-cut parts are a pleasure to work with, the old instructions are extremely confusing and have not been completely updated to the new parts. 

[rvchima]

Stern

This was an area where the instructions made no sense at all. The stern is filled in with 22 pieces of ply shaped roughly like quarter-round moulding. The instructions have the wrong part number for the pieces, and say that they should be separated from the deck with some unspecified strip wood. The pieces fit almost perfectly below the lower deck, so I just glued them in place. I suspect this is another modification to the old Mamoli kit that did not get corrected in the instructions.

Edited Monday at 09:18 PM by rvchima

[rvchima]

Gun Ports

The old Mamoli kit had cast metal gun ports that apparently required a lot of clean up. The Dusek kit has 30 gun ports in 2 sizes that are built up from thin ply. I thought that it would be tedious to build 30, but I got them done in a few hours over 2 days.

The ply had a couple of laser burn marks that I fixed with filler.

The parts are held in the ply with tiny tabs that are not on the glued edges, so you can assemble the ports without sanding. I dabbed the pieces with CA accelerator on a small brush, and glued them with medium CA. Then I sanded the fronts and backs with a small disk sander, and added the small back piece that holds the gun. It seems like that back piece should cover the whole port, but you probably won't see it on the finished model.

 

Next up: sanding all the bulkheads to shape before planking.

[Kelp]

Hi Rod,

I just checked my plans for the stern on the older version and the drawing looks nearly the same as yours except my plans show two #37 quarter round pieces instead of many small pieces and has a detail for the two strip pieces glued onto the quarter rounds. 

 

Don