Building a Imai/ Monogram 1/120 USS United States,,, great fun

  I just took some new pictures of my progress on the United States. It is coming along nice & clean. A joy to build. I just got my newest Imai/ Monogram Susquehanna in the mail today, another beauty. 

More next post.

Now to deck details & then masts. The sails are beautiful & I think will make a beautiful model.  The only trouble I have had has been my fault. I had to tie the deck guns 3 times ??? I jus couldn't get them right & also had bad thread the first time. I think I have tied hundreds of guns & a lot better too. 

She's looking Great!  That glass tabletop makes me that your model would look great on water.  

Gene,

I love it!  I'm amazed about how fast you build these ships while still doing a wonderful job!  I really like what you did with the roundhouse!

Bill

 Thank you Bill. Was there a little structure , house, on the rear deck? Revell's kits in a way have better detail, but no kit fits better, has nicer castings, or has less flash than Imai kits of any make, Ertl, or Monogram. They are just a joy to build.

    My little pea brain got it in my mind that the deck guns had a long rigging tie rope & I did them all that way & looked at a real picture of the Connies guns & redid them twice more. I had to drill out each eyebolt to get the glue out. Heaven forbid & really tie a knot & not glue. 

   My deck does look super on this one. I painted the deck with Tamiya wooden deck Tan & pencil lined the grooves with my real sharp pencils. Then I put a raw umber wash , & then used a very, thin black wash. Then I did part of the planks with a heavier raw umber. I am going to send you and Jim more of my earlier RR layout pictures. I am real proud of them. They are about 1/2 scratch built. 

Very well done Gene.

The poop deck really looks odd on such a well balanced design for a ship, no wonder captains complained about it.  

Scott

  Bill, this is the nicest to build ship model I have ever done. Everything fits  well. Of course all kits with the imai name on the mold fit well. This one seems even better. This afternoon I sanded,filed & put together all 3 masts & bow sprit.

  I built the little house or skylite for the rear deck. I built it too tall first & had to cut it bown to look right. I don't know what was on there but who does. You are the only one that seems to have found pictures. I likes the Scaledeck add pictures. I seem to still be pretty good at building & painting. I don't go crazy till I start rigging. Thats why I figure out ways to make it easy. It works.

Gene, you truly are a model building machine ! As always my friend it looks fantastic. Looking forward to seeing it up close and personal soon.

Have you or anyone else here ever tried rigging as much of the mast you can before mounting them to the hull ?  Dale

Dale, I put as much as I can on a mast or spar before I put them on. Makes it a lot easier. If I am going to use sails I will sew them on the spar before I put them on, & also I put any rigging I can on too. 

Hi Gene,

    As always, I'm watching intently.  I know my limitations so I've not had anything to add to your awe-inspiring United States construction thread.  However, I had come across a very detailed Belaying Pin plan of the Constitution in my files today.  It was from an old post on Model Ship World. I cannot not post it from my files so I re-searched for it online to post it through the MSW link.  I hope it will help with your rigging of the USF United States.  Perhaps some members can assist you with any differences between the two sister ships.

     Jim (Nino)

nino 

I for one thank you , as I intend to do the constitution again . this is going to come in very handy

steve5

Steve,

  Be aware that the  Anatomy of the Ship, Bluejacket, Model Shipways, and various other Rigging books may disagree with that posted plan. I bet you could spend a whole weekend comparing. That's what they make Scotch for.

  It is kinda nice in that the copy is a large file and easily read.  Watch the note reference for P/S (Port/Starboard).

     And take a look at one of my favorite FSM threads on Constitution rigging.  I am still trying to learn all the terms and what it all means but that's why I like it.   

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/55130.aspx?sort=DESC

   Nino.

Nino, tks for posting that. Your right in your statement of conflicting diagrams/instructions of belaying pins. I am going to add this as another reference source on my Connie build thread. I have both revell plans old/new, the BlueJacket plans and some other reference material and I noticed right off that the diagram you posted shows more pin and fife rails than any of my plans do. It still surprises me the numerous conflicts there are on how the Constitution and other ships were rigged, armed or painted.

One thing to keep in mind is Revell, monogram and other plastic model manufacturers were trying to use the "KISS" method as much as possible, so the models attracted more inexperienced builders.   Dale

know what you mean nino , but it's good to have a few different plans to compare , I have built about 6 of these 1/100 ships , and I am still trying to get to know all the terminoligy , and failing . 

 I'm an aussie , my poison is bundy rum . lol .

steve5

Gentlemen,

Also, be aware that rigging plans may have changed somewhat between each individual captain, given that they each had different ideas about how ships should be rigged or armed or trimmed, ad. infinitum. Considering this, and given  that there is so little information available on the ship itself, any rigging plan becomes educated guess work.  I would recommend that you stick with plans found in reliable references such as Jim posted rather than with the plans by Revell. As we all know, model companies never seem to get rigging plans correct.

Bill

I hope no one is looking at any of my ships thinking the rigging is correct. I'm lucky to get my shoes tied, but I do love to build ship models. Jim, the rigging plan is not going to help me because it just makes me nervous. I am very happy to get any rigging on, but thanks anyway.There are a bunch of real riggers like Steve5 who will use it.

Gene, correct or not there is not a thing wrong with your rigging skills. I hope my builds look as good.

Dale, my rigging skills are nearly non existant but I can still build. Here are some new ones I just took. What an easy ship to build. I did make aa mistake on the rear deck as it does just barely let the rigging by it. I had to sand the port side down a hair.

The masts are just setting in the holes. 

 Here are more. 

Gene, when you run out of room and your going too soon unless you do build another hobby room or take over the wifes areas (not happening ) then I would be proud to display the overflow at my house :)  The oops must of been an easy fix, it looks great

Gene,

Awesome building skills as always! I really love the scratch built roundhouse. I have this kit in the stash; however, the hull you have for this kit is different  than the hull I have. Your’s looks exactly like the USS Constitution’s hull whereas mine is a single hull, with gun carriages built in on the gun deck. There are actually two decks with my kit. 

After comparing my United States with Monogram’s smaller kit, it looks like Imai/Monogram just scaled up their kit and called it done. Although, it looks like they might have caught some flak for it and just reissued the Constitution as the USS United States. There were photos on thread I posted a couple of years ago were on Photobucket.....

Steve

Gene,

Once again, I am in awe!  The United States is beautiful!

Bill

Steve, this is the Imai/ Monogram United States. It is really just the Constitution with a different name. I have both kits & they are the old Imai Connie. Your kit is the Monogram 1/150 kit isn't it.

   Everything in this kit, even being molded by Monogram over Imai fits perfectly. I have built other Imai or Imai/ Ertl kits & they are all beautiful to build. I am too old to hand rig shrouds anymore & I have made my shrouds for most of my other kits on Airfix's rig. On this one I am going to cheat & use the kit shrouds because they reallyl look good. I am going to put the kit sails on too. I have the sails all painted & the spars cleaned & painted . I will sew the sails on & they have looked great on a lot of my other ships.

Gene,

I am intrigued by that deck house you built on the round house. I have never noticed it depicted in any artwork of the ship.  What gave you he idea to do so?  It looks great!

Bill

Bill, look on Scaledecks add on ebay, they have a bunch of pictures of it. It probably isn't right but it looks good. I built this one from memory & it was way too tall. I cut it down & crushed it twice. Then I had to rebuild it & would have been way better off building a new one. I will do that anyway because this one is rough now.

  For anyone building the deck, set it in enough to clear the shrouds. Mine will have a slight bulge in the shroud, but the life boat will hide it .About 1/16 or so on each side. Check it tho.I have the Imai/ Monogram Constitution too & will build it later. I was really facinated with the Scaledecks add for their United States 1/96 deck & was disapointed when it wasn't in the Imai/ Monogram kit.

Gene,

One of the most interesting facts surrounding the USS United States is that there are so few known facts extant.  We know of the roundhouse but not its appearance, We know that it existed at least into the mid to late 1840s.  Paintings show one level to the quarter galleries, but there are a few that indicate that there might have been two.  This gives significant artistic license to the modeler, and you are doing a great job!  I had never seen that deck house, so I am intrigued by your depiction.  Well done!

Bill

Bill , one other thing you have to do with the rear deck is cut the rear "spanker " sail down to fit over the deck & skylite house. I did that this morning. I just cut the lower boom short & drilled a heavy wire in & drilled thru the post & mast.

docidle

Gene,

Awesome building skills as always! I really love the scratch built roundhouse. I have this kit in the stash; however, the hull you have for this kit is different  than the hull I have. Your’s looks exactly like the USS Constitution’s hull whereas mine is a single hull, with gun carriages built in on the gun deck. There are actually two decks with my kit. 

After comparing my United States with Monogram’s smaller kit, it looks like Imai/Monogram just scaled up their kit and called it done. Although, it looks like they might have caught some flak for it and just reissued the Constitution as the USS United States. There were photos on thread I posted a couple of years ago were on Photobucket.....

Steve

 

 Steve,

      I was copying my List of Sailing Ship kits to send to a couple of friends when I read your post. Perfect timing.  I have some info courtesy of several old but never forgotten Forum members and from some great threads regarding USF United States and Constitution. I believe Gene has the Monogram 1/120 kit.  The kit you mentioned would be the Monogram 1 piece hull 1/150(1/240).

 (I expect formating of the List will be changed when I post this.  Sorry for that.)

The United States Kits:

OK Jim this is what I want you to build. IT is fun. It has taken me a month to get this far & I am sewing sails onto spars. I took these today as I just finished the standing rigging. I should have put them on before I did the standing rigging as the shrouds hold the masts straight when you use Imai/ Monogram plastic shrouds. They are really nice. & I think look good. My next pictures will be of the sails. I got them too white & had to darken them a little. 

    This kit will make a new builder fired up just building it out of the box with kit shrouds. Or an old guy too. 

More pics.

  Well this has been a fun build & I would sure reccomend this or any kit that has Imai on it. The Revell is bigger with a lot more neat detail, but way harder & larger to find a place to put it. I'm going to start hanging them from the ceiling I think.

By the way, you can blow these pictures up by hitting the center with your cursor, or what ever it is. Mouse?