Revell 1:196 Constitution Progress

Mark,

Please read the last paragraph of my comment.  I am actually defending your choice. But, if you really want to model her in 1997, you will most certainly have to change her beakhead and get rid of the figurehead.  But, I am sure that you were planning that anyway.

Bill

warshipguy

Painted decks aside, decks were not allowed to simply weather.  Holystoned, well-maintained decks became almost white or very light tan.  Although I never served on any sailing ships in my Navy career, I did visit several ships with teak decks; I was always struck by how light they were in color.

We discussed this issue in a thread many years ago with a "La Flore" build, in which the builder presented the brownish, worn appearance mentioned above.  We quickly ascertained that the British, Dutch, and American navies maintained their decks and these should appear almost white.  The French and Spanish were not so inclined; their decks should have the worn, weathered brownish-gray appearance.

We should also note that the kit is depicted in her 1830's configuration with the Andrew Jackson figurehead intact.  I doubt if she had gray painted decks then, but I couldn't swear to it.  If the Constitution had painted gray decks, then I suppose the presentation is accurate. But, it does look strange to me; hence, its appeal.

Bill

If go back and read my earlier posts, you'll see that my intention is to model the restored ship as she was sailed in 1997.  Don't disagree with anything you're saying about holystoning and teak decks, but that's not what I'm modeling. 

Mark

Painted decks aside, decks were not allowed to simply weather.  Holystoned, well-maintained decks became almost white or very light tan.  Although I never served on any sailing ships in my Navy career, I did visit several ships with teak decks; I was always struck by how light they were in color.

We discussed this issue in a thread many years ago with a "La Flore" build, in which the builder presented the brownish, worn appearance mentioned above.  We quickly ascertained that the British, Dutch, and American navies maintained their decks and these should appear almost white.  The French and Spanish were not so inclined; their decks should have the worn, weathered brownish-gray appearance.

We should also note that the kit is depicted in her 1830's configuration with the Andrew Jackson figurehead intact.  I doubt if she had gray painted decks then, but I couldn't swear to it.  If the Constitution had painted gray decks, then I suppose the presentation is accurate. But, it does look strange to me; hence, its appeal.

Bill

rcboater

Personally, I think the decks are too gray.   I did a quick google to check-- I found some pictures of the restored ship where the decks look grayish-- but it is a brown-ish gray.

Teak decks start  out tan, and slowly weather to a silvery gray-- look at cedar fences  or teak woodwork on an older sailboat for an example.  I find that Pollyscale's "Aged conrete" is a good color-- a sorta grayish tan.  I used that as a base coat for most wood decks. 

Just my opinion....

Here's a photo of the '97 cruise which is my timeframe.  The decks were painted gray, not weathered teak at that time.  They were painted to accomodate all the visitor traffic they have onboard and to reduce maintenance requirements.  Same gray paint was used on the fighting tops.

Looks pretty gray to me.  Also looked pretty gray when I was actually aboard her. 

If I were modeling her  as she looked in 1812, with weathered, holystoned teak decks, then I might agree with you, but that's not what I'm trying to do.  I'll stick with my "gray" deck.

Mark

Personally, I think the decks are too gray.   I did a quick google to check-- I found some pictures of the restored ship where the decks look grayish-- but it is a brown-ish gray.

Teak decks start  out tan, and slowly weather to a silvery gray-- look at cedar fences  or teak woodwork on an older sailboat for an example.  I find that Pollyscale's "Aged conrete" is a good color-- a sorta grayish tan.  I used that as a base coat for most wood decks. 

Just my opinion....

Managed to get some more work done over the long weekend between some home improvement projects.

Finished adding the carronade breech lines and the training tackle.  For the training tackles I tacked down two parallel pieces of thread.  To represent the blocks I used a toothpick to place a drop of white glue covering the ends of the lines.  When the white glue was dry I then used a toothpick to paint them flat brown.

Haven't decided if I want to add the carronade in-haul and out-haul tackles.  In  this scale it might make it look too busy.  My plan is to build her as she was sailed in 1997.  The carronades in-haul tackles haven't been rigged for some time mostly so visitors wouldn't be tripping over them.  At the same time she didn't have all 20 carronades on board, so whatever I do isn't going to be exactly right.

I also did some work on the masts.  I added some Model Expo eyebolts to the bottom of the mast tops.  These will be for tying off the tops of the futtock shrouds later on.  Blurry picture of the maintop:

Had my nose in Olof Eriksen's book planning my rigging sequence for the masts, while watching my copy of Master & Commander for the umpteenth time for some inspiration...

Mark 

Kim Here...

Lokks like some of my post got cut off...but I was saying that I had used stains, as opposed to paints, for more realism, but of course it takes forever to dry, but makes it look like actual wood, as far as the bulwarks and the decks are concerned...

Best of Luck, Again...

Kim

HI There...Kim Here...!!!

Nice Work...!!! I ran across your pics by accident, and had to compliment you...I just recently completed ( after 11 Months !!!) two (2) of the old 'Cutty Sark' ships , 1 was from 1959, and the other from 1974...(I actually had to purchase 3 of the kits, via e-bay, at different $ of course, n order to make the two ships...One with sails, and one without...I've been building ships ( and planes, and cars...but mostly wooden ships, for about 4o= years now !!!)  These ships are heavily modified, as I made my own bullwarks, and deadeyes for more authentic realism, along with a lot of other extreme modifications...Lots of patience, as I'm sute you're aware...If interested, I'll forward some recent Pics... Pretty awesome work, If I do say so myself...!!! Keep up the nice work...!!! ( By the way I used 

Best of lustains, instead of pack...

Kimints for more realism...even though it takes forever for the stuff to dry properly !!!)

Mikeym_us

Did you try to make a gun deck before you put the spar deck on? with the hatches open you can see down into the gun deck.

I've got a partial deck piece with some scratch-built details that I'm going to mount under the main hatch before I close it up for good.  Kind of a shadow box effect. 

Looking forward to the long weekend coming up to get some work done on it.

Mark 

I think the gray looks good. My own personal preference for plastic sailing ship decks is good old Light Gull Gray, a lovely color esp. on Skyrays.

But I digress...

One of the best plastic kits, in any scale or subject, ever sold.

Painting the decks grey is really not far off. In the days of sailing ships, decks usually turned grey from exposure to the elements and holy stone (called holy stone, because the volcanic stone was the size of a Bible) scrubbing by the crew.

Montani semper liberi.  Happy modeling to all and every one of you.

                       Crackers                  

Did you try to make a gun deck before you put the spar deck on? with the hatches open you can see down into the gun deck.

Not a lot of obvious progress, but dry-fitted the masts as a visual aid to help plot out my rigging strategy.

I've had my nose buried in my copy of Olof Ericksen's All Sails Up and Flying for the last few evenings trying to figure out not only how much rigging I actually want to do, but also the order. 

Going to do as much to the masts as I can off the ship before I step them.  I'm thinking I'll seize the swifters & shouds around the lower masts and then tie them out of the way,  then add the molded deadeyes to the tops and rig the shrouds for the top masts, and work on up.  Still working out how I'm going to do the futtocks and Bentinck shouds.  Once I get as much done as I can, then I'll step the masts, tie off the swifters and shrouds and then finish the rest of the standing rigging.  Seems to make some sense - glad I have a long weekend coming up to spend some time on it.

Mark

warshipguy

It's an interesting build so far.  That is a great old kit, although I always hated the molded on carronades.  Oh, well, no kit is perfect!  Nice job on the carronade slides so far, but the deck seems too gray.  Keep posting!

Bill

I was wondering if anybody would notice the deck color - it was a concious decision to do it in gray.  I'm actually building this one to represent how the restored Constitution looked when she was sailed in 1997.   Out of the box the kit is pretty much based on the 1925 restoration.  The decks of the restored ship were painted gray for many years, both for protection and ease of maintenance. That's the way it was when I've visited her and in all the contemporary reference photos that I've compiled.  I'm also planning to add furled sails for the six-sail rig that was used when she was sailed.

Even prior to the current "back-dating" of the actual ship, I've played with the idea of doing the same thing to the 1/196 Revell model, i.e.,  -  cutting down the bulwarks, modifying the stern, etc. to get the model closer to her 1812 configuration.  Maybe I'll take that on once I get this one finished.

Mark

It's an interesting build so far.  That is a great old kit, although I always hated the molded on carronades.  Oh, well, no kit is perfect!  Nice job on the carronade slides so far, but the deck seems too gray.  Keep posting!

Bill