USS Constitution

So, one of my many hobbies is to build models.  I have memories of building models with my dad from a very young age.  In fact, one of the first models we built together influenced my career choice later in life.  We built a ziggurat out of cardboard for a school history project.  A few years later in art class I was supposed to be carving Big Ben out of plaster but soon realized i didn't even know how the tower actually looked  So..., I broke the top off of it, stuck it on a sheet of ceiling tile, placed green moss around the bottom of it and called it a Mayan temple.  It was put on display for the year in the window of the classroom.  It got to the point in more recent times that I would build the model, play with it for a couple of days, then put it aside with the idea I was going to build a diorama at a later date.  Invariably it would never happen and I was left with a mass of unaffiliated models floating around the house.  Eventually I sold most of them through yard sales... and people were willing to buy them.  Its not that they were all that good or that they brought in much money.  It was just cool that people wanted them for whatever reason.

USS Constitution
My first attempt at the Revell 1/96 scale model of the USS Constitution occurred back in 2003.  I had it complete accept for running most of the lines when a shelf broke sending the model crashing to the garage floor.  I held on to it for a few months but realized that I was defeated.  I sold it for $20 at a garage sale.  The guy didn't even want the parts I had yet to place on the model.  Who knows what became of it.  That particular model was painted to reflect the current state of the ship.

CSS Alabama
I started this model in 2005.  It is a Revell 1/96 scale model of the American Civil War commerce raider CSS Alabama.  The partially completed hull made the trip from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, in December of 2005.  I worked on it from time to time until I left for Cardiff in 2007.  Hurricane Irene hit Virginia in August of 2011.  We were left with no power for a week.  I spent that time completing the model in our screened-in back porch.  I was partly inspired to complete it after visiting the HMS Warrior in Portsmouth, England.  The two ships were completed around the same time and are very similar except for the slightly longer hull and extra funnel of the Warrior.  I was very proud of how the ship turned out and decided I would try again with the USS Constitution.

HMS Warrior, Portsmouth, England

CSS Alabama

Model of CSS Alabama

HMS Warrior

Model of CSS Alabama

HMS Warrior

Exhibit on HMS Warrior innovations

 

Retractable propeller on the model of the CSS Alabama.

USS Constitution, Part Deux
 I wanted to be more accurate with this second 1/96 scale model of the ship.  I conducted online research of the ship and how other model builders constructed theirs.  I found many useful sights and suggestions from other modellers.  I also found that many ideas were contradictory.  This is mainly because the details of the ship during the August 19, 1812 battle with the HMS Guerrière were not recorded to the level of detail many modellers like.  I decided, damn the contradictions, I'll build the model to the depiction of it in Michele Felice Corne's depiction of the battle.  Upon the USS Constitution's return to port, Capt. Hull commissioned Corne to do a series of four paintings depicting the battle.  I am assuming that these painting probably most closely resemble how the shipped looked during the famous battle.

I will follow this post soon with a post detailing how I modified the painting instructions that came with the model to more closely resemble the ship in Corne's paintings.

Michele Felice Corne's depiction of the battle between the USS Constitution and the HMS Guerrière {{PD-Art}}.