There are quite a few
Constitution kits out there with Revell labels. I assume the one we're talking about here is the old original Revell kit - the one with the Andrew Jackson figurehead. If so, it's an "oldie but goodie." Here's some information on it, gleaned primarily from Thomas Graham's
Remembering Revell Model Kits.
It was originally released in 1956 - the very first sailing ship kit Revell made (excluding a series of tiny ones the company had taken over from Gowland Creations a few years earlier). In its original form it had "shroud-and-ratline" assemblies made from plastic-coated thread; the modeler was supposed to lay them over a printed pattern and cut them to length. (Revell invented that system, which Airfix later copied. I fervently wish the idea had never occurred to anybody; those things were almost impossible to rig in any acceptable way.) It's been reissued many times. Mr. Graham lists reissue dates of 1958, 1968, 1973, and 1977, but his data stops at the end of the seventies. The kit has reappeared several times since then, and I believe it's still in the Revell/Monogram catalog. A couple of those reissues contained vacuum-formed plastic sails.
For its age it's a great kit. The basic shapes are right, and such details as the figurehead and the steering wheel are about as fine and precise as can be expected on such a small scale. Even in those early days of the plastic kit industry Revell was figuring out ingenious ways to outdo the competition - in this case wood kits from companies like Marine Models, Boucher, and A.J. Fisher. Those firms offered pre-carved, solid hulls, and for ships like the
Constitution they invariably provided "dummy cannons" - cast lead or turned brass stubs of gun barrels that were to be plugged into holes drilled in the sides of the hull. Such fittings invariably looked phoney. Revell provided full-length guns with carriages, which sat on little shelves cast integrally with the hull halves.
The kit does have its limitations - some due to its age, some to the small scale. Ag918w35 has identified one of them: the opaque "windows" in the transom and the quarter galleries. Frankly, if I were building this kit I wouldn't worry about the windows. Replacing the ones in the transom with clear plastic (and, perhaps, white decal stripes for the framing) would be practical, but the subtle curves of the quarter gallery windows would be a real challenge. My inclination would be to paint the "glass" areas a very dark blue (to distinguish it from the black paint of the hull), apply several coats of clear gloss to them, and leave it at that. Those windows are mighty small; I suspect few observers would notice that they weren't transparent.
A more serious problem is the hatch in the middle of the spar deck - the one under the ship's boat. This is supposed to be a big open space.
The first frigates had separate forecastles and quarterdecks. By the late eighteenth century they were fitted with removable "gangways" between the quarterdeck and the forecastle, so men could get from one to the other without climbing up and down ladders. Eventually the gangways became permanent, and as the years went by they got wider. By the 1790s, when the
Constitution was built, the gangways had become so wide that the quarterdeck, the forecastle deck and the gangways were to all intents and purposes one full-length deck, which came to be called the "spar deck." What had been the space between the gangways now amounted to a large hatch, spanned by permanently-mounted beams on which the ship's boats and spare spars were stowed.
That hatch, in other words, should be a big opening in the spar deck; the main deck should be visible through it. Revell, if I remember correctly, represented the hatch as a solid surface, with the beams cast in relief. (Three years later Revell released its H.M.S.
Victory, which represented the waist-and-beam arrangement much more accurately. The Revell designers were learning, and getting more adventurous, as they went along. When they did their big 1/96
Constitution, in 1965, they included a full-length main deck - and clear windows for the transom and quarter galleries.)
What should be done about this problem? One approach would be to paint the "hatch" black and forget it. (Revell was a little parsimonious in providing only one boat to sit on the beams. There should be three or four. Some additional boats from spare parts box would help hide the hatch.) A more accurate solution would be to cut the hatch out and build a section of main deck underneath - just as much of that deck as can be seen through the hatch. Evergreen grooved styrene sheet would be a good material for that purpose. To be really accurate that section of deck should have a couple of hatches (probably covered with gratings) in it. But even if a simple section of planked deck - perhaps with some ladders leading down to it from the spar deck - were visible, that would be a huge improvement - and not much of it could be seen around the boats.
On small-scale models like this, shrouds and ratlines do present a problem. Sounds like ag918w35 got one of the recent reissues of the kit, which, I believe, include injection-molded plastic "shrouds and ratlines." Those have the virtue of being easier to handle than the original plastic-coated thread ones, but look even worse.
Lenroberto is right: rigging ratlines to scale is far easier than most newcomers think. On a small-scale model like this one, though, you might want to consider an old trick that's sort of a compromise between the hokey Revell approach and absolute authenticity.
Rig the shrouds first. Then arm yourself with a spool of the finest black thread you can find, and the smallest needle you can find. Cut a piece of white card (index cards work great) to fit between the channel (where the bottom ends of the shrouds are secured) and the top. Rule a series of lines on the card, to represent where the ratlines go. (On that scale the spacing theoretically should be about 1/16". If that's a little too daunting, apply the IFF [International Fudge Factor] and put them a little farther apart.) Put the card behind the shrouds. Shove the needle through the first shroud where the lowest ratline is to start. (If you're right-handed, you'll probably find it easier to start on the right and work your way to the left, at first.) Shove the needle through each shroud in turn, being careful to follow the pencil line. When you're through, put a tiny drop of white glue on the first and last intersections of shrouds and ratline. Let the glue dry, then snip off the excess ratline with a razor blade or a pair of small scissors. (That's the nerve-wracking part. If you snip one of the shrouds by accident you'll have to start over.)
As lenroberto said, there's a steep but short learning curve in ship model rigging. The first couple of ratlines will take a while; resist the temptation to heave the model across the room. By the tenth ratline or thereabouts, you'll be wondering why people fuss so much about ratlines.
One easy tip on rigging. The rigging of a real sailing ship consists of hundreds - even thousands - of lines, in a huge variety of sizes. Few modelers would try to reproduce all the standing and running rigging of the
Constitution on the scale of that Revell kit (though it's been done). But the more different sizes of thread you use, the better. Generally speaking, the higher up on the masts a line is, the finer it should be. If you incorporate five or six different thread diameters in your model, you'll be much more pleased with the results than if you just use two or three.
Hope all this helps a little. Good luck. It's a great hobby.