I built the Revell 1/96 USS Constitution over 35 years ago. Dragged a half-finished hull down to college my junior year (I was renting the upstairs of an old farm house) and brought home a nearly completed ship. My brother had to sit in the back seat of the car holding it during the 3+ hour trip home. Finally finished it in late 1983. It survived 2 more moves before finally being damaged beyond repair and scuttled. I did manage to save the stern and a few of the men, but that was it.
About 15 years ago, my brother found one at a garage sale that had never been opened and gave it to me, where it sat for the last 15 years. So I have finally opened the box and started in on it. Again.
Not wanting to repeat the errors of my youth, I did quite a bit of research, and came across Force9's build. Impressive to say the least. Not wanting to piggy-back on his build, I decided to share some of my own parts of the build. I have decided to go with quite a few scratch-built pieces, and a few from ModelMonkey to help with the realism. I also scrapped the plastic, multi-piece decks for scratch-built wooden decks as well. I also have corrected several of the "errors" in hatch placements and added the walls for the Commodore's area and pantry. Finally, since I am somewhat of a wiz with LEDs (I have been using LEDs to light pinball toys for the last 15 years), The berth deck and gun deck will be lit, as well as the Captain's and Commodore's cabins.
So join me if you want to jog down memory lane with me as I rebuild this classic for the second time.
Bob