Welcome to the forum! If you're interested in sailing ships, you'll find this is a fun place. It's inhabited by some very strange people, but most of them are relatively harmless.
We've hashed out the topic of wood ship kits in this forum several times; the thread headed "First wooden ship" contains several highly opinionated comments, many of them from yours truly. I'll confine myself here to one suggestion: if you want to build a scale model of the
Constitution from a wood kit, buy either the Bluejacket or Model Shipways version. The biggest differences between them are scale (the Model Shipways one is bigger) and method of hull construction (the Bluejacket one has a solid hull; the Model Shipways one is based on the plank-on-bulkhead system). Both are fine kits. They will, if the instructions are followed, produce genuine scale models. The Continental European plank-on-bulkhead kits, unless they're extensively modified, will not.
We also took up the question of sails recently, under the heading "real cloth sails." There are as many opinions about sails as there are ship modelers. My personal preference, if I were doing a model of the
Constitution, would be to build it without sails or with furled sails. The thread I just mentioned contains some diverse views on the subject, and some tips on sailmaking.
You also might want to check the thread headed "Color Differences between USS Constitution and USS United States." It wandered away from the original topic into a couple of fascinating posts about the changes the ship's appearance has undergone during her career.
I've moved those three threads to the head of the forum, so they ought to appear on the list just above or below this one. Reading them may take a while, but I think it will be worthwhile. Just don't take us Olde Phogeys too seriously, or let our ramblings and rantings intimidate you. Like I said earlier, most of us are eccentric but harmless. Ship modeling, for most people, is a hobby - and a great one. The only thing you're "supposed" to do with it is have fun.
Good luck. The
Constitution is an extremely challenging subject.