U.S.S. Constitution - Revell 1/96 Plastic Kit

Joined
Nov 29, 2016
Messages
376
Points
268

Location
Atlanta, GA
A little over one year now with this kit. I've taken the liberty to add a few things such as a stove, opened up a gun deck hatch and added storage items and also installed a LED lighting kit with dimmer switch. I'm currently working on the 32 pound guns for lower deck. Here is a pic of the gun deck in early stage. I originally tried to paint the deck but I ordered laser printed wooden deck from ScaleDecks. My wife made my stove and brick flooring out of sculpey. I purchased some barrels and crates to use with my build.

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Here is a picture of the officers quarters located at the stern of ship. Many 'thanks' to my wife for printing and reducing my world map on the left wall and the picture of the two of us in our pirate gear (picture in full size) that is above the round table. I added the weathered charts laying on table by coloring some paper with water colors; then drawing a map; crumbled the paper when dried; cut out and rolled into shape and used white glue to attach them to tables.

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This is the lower hatch that I opened. I realize that the next deck down should be the crew's living quarters, but I used my discretion to show storage below. These were added metal items that I purchased and weathered using acrylic paints. I added them to a faux deck to be glued under the hatch opening. My stacked porthole covers that eventually will be glued down somewhere on the deck. I used my Xacto blade to cut a notch in them to create the split-port covers.

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The picture below is my version of the stove vent for the upper deck. I added the smoke baffle by punching out a circle from a styrene sheet. I added the bottom rings for turning of the stove stack.


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Here is one of my 32 pound guns with it's rigging. All paint used is Testors or Model Master. I try to stay with flats but I also use Dull Coat on any enamels. I'm only rigging the guns that will be visible through the hatches or openings on the gun deck level. I dread the upper deck that awaits!!!

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Picture of the hull with green and reddish weathering powders. I then sprayed with dull coat. I also went with a white strip instead of a yellow ochra. After all, I'm captain of this ship ;)

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A shot of two of my long boats with coiled ropes that will be installed on top deck.

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Below is a trial run with the led lights. I used strip led tape and blacked out most of the lights by using black acrylic paint. Lighting has a dimmer switch and is powered by wall connection.

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Another good gift from my daughter for future use. She is in California and visited us with our 3 year old grandson. He was totally fascinated with this ship so I made him my 'mate' and let him help me make the rope coils for my longboats! I'll post a picture of this in the near future. I want to thank my daughter, Robin, for her wonderful gifts in reading material. My wife and I introduced her to books very early and it's paid off!!!
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So this is a picture of my hull that I mounted to my wooden base. I found the base at Michael's and stained it. I cut 4" lengths of 1/2" squares and glued them to the base. The wiring for the lights runs from the backside of base and up through one of the mounting columns into the hull. The strip lights are then glued to the underside of the decks.

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And once again, I'd like to thank Uwek and Zoltan for turning on 'the lights' when it comes to posting format. !st attempt was pretty brutal. Cheers and here's to our little projects. :)
 

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You can be very happy to have a daughter making these valuable presents.
I am sure that the book from Marquardt is helping a lot. Also the book from Petersson is a good basis to see the different rigging, especially he is showing all information on sketches and not in written words.
I will follow your log with big interest.....many thanks for sharing with us.
 
Hello Fright,here are a few tutorial how to post images or edit post to fix images posted between text,I think u need to leave more spaces between text and images .

https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/index.php?pages/SOShelpAdvanced/

https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/index.php?pages/SOShelpAdvancedAttachEdits/

Zoltan
Zoltan - thanks for these links. I'll try to make corrections for future posts. I'm bouncing between the Connie and my Bluenose by Scientific. I've got Revell's 1/56 America Yacht and Model Shipways English Pinnace :eek: to tackle after I learn my skills with these current two models. Always appreciate any advice or suggestions from other modelers!
 
You can be very happy to have a daughter making these valuable presents.
I am sure that the book from Marquardt is helping a lot. Also the book from Petersson is a good basis to see the different rigging, especially he is showing all information on sketches and not in written words.
I will follow your log with big interest.....many thanks for sharing with us.

Uwek - thank you for taking a look and your support. When it's time to start with the rigging, I've made a promise with myself not to turn to alcohol or throw anything at the walls!!! lol I admire the patience and skills of modelers who have completed rigged ships. I look forward to getting both decks finished and installed before the end of this year. Take care and hope to chat once again :)
 
Ok - let's see if my spacing with pics and text comes out a tad better! LOL So after looking at some images of the stern from Marquardt's book, I decided to make a few changes with mine.

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I taped off my two ports that i would open and cut out the shape with my Xacto blade.

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They are the same size as the side gun ports, and went with what I had read in articles that the split gun ports were usually stacked below deck when in good waters. Only in rough seas did they close all ports. So I used two of the unused gun ports for my stern.

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I drilled four holes and added rings to hold the rudder lines.

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I also cut and removed some of the detail on the back of the stern with my Xacto and sanding sticks.

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The above photo was taken looking through the stern windows into the officers quarters. Again, you can see that the two figures are held in place with tape and not glued in at this point. So, let's see if this came out in a better format. I want to thank Zolton for sending me a link that helped explain this method! Cheers mate!!! ;)
 
Your post is looking much better, if you have once time you could also edit and change your first post....just an idea.
I like it very much, that you adjusted the stern already with the two gun ports, well done. It is looking very good. And I like very much the gimmick with the two figurines in the stern quarter.
 
Your post is looking much better, if you have once time you could also edit and change your first post....just an idea.
I like it very much, that you adjusted the stern already with the two gun ports, well done. It is looking very good. And I like very much the gimmick with the two figurines in the stern quarter.
Will try to correct my 1st entry in the next couple of days. Big difference! I chose this model to build to help me learn some techniques in fabricating, rigging and researching the model before I try to tackle a wooden plank type ship. I'd feel terrible if I destroyed a $200-$300 kit! I looked at your build and I hope to get to your level of modeling someday. Thanks again!
 
I looked at your build and I hope to get to your level of modeling someday. Thanks again!
Thanks for this nice words, but the way is not so long, you will see, and I can see :)
 
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