Summer project

For the 1/96 Constitution, check out HisModels

https://www.hismodel.com/articles-category-15

Bob

Gold Medal Models has a nice PE set for the Tamiya Enterprise. 
They used to sell PE for the deck elevators but those have been discontinued. 
Might try Starfighter Decals for deck and hangar markings. 

Thanks, and I'll check out that site.

Thank you!  I'm thinking that I'll be spending some money in the future!!

In model building, that is not difficult. It's a detail equals expense kind of equation.

Hey, Mr. Tom, what did you teach?

I have built several 1/96th swcale Constitutions back when this kit first came out and always wanted to go to the real one but the closest I got was Mystic seaport to se the Charles W. Morgan.

I remember building the 1/400th Enterprise with its Beehive structure way back then but I thought it was from Revell.  Oh well, long time ago.

There were a couple guys in the class ahead of us during high school who were on the Enterprise when she caught fire.  One stayed with the ship and the other eventually transferred to subs.  I was smarter when I got drafted, I went A.F., a whole lot less water there.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-05173-uss-enterprise-cvn-65--1266449

No PE list there so probably not. 

i would contact Steve  (Model Monkey) and ask him what he has seen.

Bill

ikar01

I remember building the 1/400th Enterprise with its Beehive structure way back then but I thought it was from Revell.  Oh well, long time ago.

Aurora originally released their 1:400 scale bee-hive Enterprise.   When Aurora folded, Monogram got the molds and re-released it under their label.   When Monogram & Revell merged, Revell got the molds & re-released it under their label.  Revell AG (i.e. Revell Germany) got access to the molds through Revell USA and released it under their label too.  The new Revell probably got the molds after the Revell bankruptcy and we may see yet another re-release sometime in the future.

Interesting note, Bert Kinsey in his Detail & Scale book on the Enterprise called the Tamiya 1:350 scale offering the second-best large-scale version.   The Otaki 1:400 scale Enterprise was much better (In his opinion).  The Aurora/Monogram/Revell kit is not to be confused with the Otaki kit and came in a distant third.    The better small scale modern Enterprise is the Revell 1:720 scale beebee-hive.

As far a photo-etch for the 1:400 Enterprise, nothing dedicated.   However Toms Modelworks makes generic 1:400 scale railings which can be used to dress-up the kit, but you may be putting lipstick on a pig.

I'm pretty sure it (Aurora) was the 'big" present one Christmas.

Didn't it have the angle deck markings pre-painted on the deck?

I seem to remember it had some pretty dedcent F-4s too.

Bill

Hi HooYahDeepSea,

I taught elementary, grades 4 & 5 and then 6th grade social studies.  I really enjoyed teaching elementary the most because you really got to know the kids and their families. I taught for 30 years in the trenches. Teaching is a great profession, at least it was until politics and other non-education factors got involved.  Now I wouldn't even consider to go back and substitute teach.

Hi ikar01,

I also built Revell's 1/96 Constitution back when I was a teenager.  Got through about 3/4 of it before it was shelved due to cars, girls, sports, and jobs.  Sadly it was thrown out eventually.  Now I have two 1/96, one 1/120, and one 1/196 kit in my stash.  One of the 1/96 kits is an early release(little booklet included) so that will probable be the first one I make(sails furled and standing rigging only).  The 1/120 one will be built with sails out and the 1/196 I hoping to mount in a sea base with sails out.  Funny that you mentioned the Morgan because I also built that kit as a teenager and have one of those in my stash presently.  I believe that the first release of the 1/400 Enterprise was done by Aurora and for ther time of its release it's not a bad kit.

Bucket list trips- Boston to see the USS Constitution, Mystic Seaport to see the Charles W. Morgan, and England to see the HMS Victory

Dream kits - USS America CV-66 in 1/350 or larger(my brother served as a radioman on her in the 1970s) so come on Trumpeter make one!!!

Thanks for tip of photoetch.  Sadly, I'm known in my local model club as the guy who consistently puts lipstick on pigs.  I'm a glutten for punishment.

That's the kit!  It certainly was a "big" present.  I mentioned in an earlier posting that for its time it wasn't a bad kit.  Plans are to build it possibly for an "out of box" category.  I like the challenge of building kits from my childhood utilizing my new skills as a modeler. 

Hello Tom!

My Revell/BlueJacket Constitution project has stalled for a bit, but I do suggest looking at the following website with photoetch and other parts for Heller's HMS Victory: http://www.dafinismus.de/index_en.html . I have a Heller Victory waiting in the stash, but these parts are excellent, and aside from the stuff I bought for Victory I bought a few extras and have applied them to my Constitution build - hooks, eyebolts, etc. 

Best,

Jose

Hi Jose,

Thanks for the tips for the Constitution.  So you have the HMS Victory by Heller.  That has always been on my wish list along with Revell's CSS Alabama/USS Kearsage.  That Heller kits goes for "crazy" money on ebay!  The best that I can do is the old Revell 1/225 Victory.  The good thing about this kit is that it is the only "surviving" kit that I have from my teenage years.  The only thing that I did to it was to brush paint the hull's copper, black, and yellow with Testor's little square enamel jars from the 1970s.  Believe me it was a herculean task to strip that paint off after all of these years.  Good luck on your Constitution build! 

When the Enterprise came out the real ship was pretty new and could be seen on the news a lot launching strikes during the war.

Didn't someone come out with a behive island for the Tamiya kit?

When I saw the Morgan it had fake gunports painted on it to make other ships think it was a warship.  Back then (about 1969) , you could go onboard.  It still smelled and below decks was very cramped.

ikar01

Didn't someone come out with a behive island for the Tamiya kit?

Yes there is one, 3D printed.  Can't remember who did it - not Model Monkey.   The bee hive island alone won't get you to the backdate.   There are some significant flight deck shape changes as well as some sponson changes which must be considered.

Yeah, all of the research on the Morgan that I ran acrossed always shows her with the fake gunports painted down her sides.  Man, I can't imagine how it must have smelled!  All those years of boiling whale blubber to extract the oil had to "ingrain" itself into the timbers of that ship.  Always wanted to have that model built to bring to my classroom for the lessons on the whaling industry in regards to the industries of the NE United States in the early years.  The students loved it whenever I brought built models to go along with my lessons.  I even brought in the fuselage halves of various Spitfire kits to show the differences in scale(1/72 is much smaller than 1/24)

The Revell Morgan kit is an interesting one with a fair amount of backstory, much like the ship. I'ts a real treasure that she has been restored and still exists.

The model is set up as a fully rigged ship, which was as-built. She was qickly converted to a bark, which is how I've built the model.

She spent the last years of her career in San Francisco, after the whales in the Southern Atlantic had been wiped out.

Pictures of her at that time show that she had a solid transom with no gallery windows.After leaving service, she appeared in a number of movies, and that seems to be when the gun ports and stripes were painted on. At one point, she had black boats according to a picture I have of her in about 1906.

Later she was sold to a private individual who cast her into a concrete pond at his estate.

It's a bit of a miracle that she survived so many indignities.

More on that model, if you are interested including the usual pearls from Dr. Tilley.

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/96577.aspx

Bill