I know this may have been discussed to death, buyt I’m still a little confused…
What time period does the big Revell USS COnstitution kit represent?
I’ve done some searching here in the foum-- there are LOTS of old posts about this kit. I know (I think) that the Revell kit is based on the Smithsonian’s 1/48 scale model-- the Campbell plans.
Someone had posted links to a web page full of photos of the Smithsonian model-- where it was said to represent the ship in the period 1809- 1812.
But there is also a couple of other posts (Dr. Tilley) here that said that the kit represents the ship in 1814.
I’m just trying to figure out what time period you get if you build the kit essentially OOB…
You’re correct that the big 1/96 Revell Constitution represents the ship somewhere around the 1812 timeframe.
The smaller 1/196 Revell kit represents the Constitution after it’s 1929-30 restoration up until the current ongoing restoration which is attempting to take the actual ship back to it’s 1812 configuration.
Mark
As I understand it, Mr. Campbell intended the plans he drew for the Smithsonian (on which the 1/96 Revell kit is based) to represent the ship’s 1814 configuration. He drew those plans a long time ago (in the late '50s, I think); a great deal of research about the ship has been done since, and if Mr. Campbell were making the drawings now I imagine he would change some things. (Most conspicuously, perhaps, he’d probably omit the hinged gunport lids.)
The old Revell 1/192 kit (well…come to think of it, they’re both old now - and so am I) seems to have been intended to represent her has she looked at the time the kit was designed (it was originally released in 1956), with one big exception: for some reason or other, somebody decided to give it the notorious Andrew Jackson figurehead.