I thought the '50s Revell Constitution was 1/196 in scale? The kit is a modern box (dark blue) and gives the scale as 1/146. Is this just a case of the box having the wrong scale? (as with the SMER "1/48" re-issues of old Aurora and Merit WW1 planes
which are anything from 1/40 to 1/55 in scale)
I picked this kit up at a very cheap price and thought it might be a good introduction to sailing ship modelling, as it's not too big or complex compared to something like the Victory or Cutty Sark.