1:350 USS Constellation CV-64

The ship they called Connie

The aircraft carrier USS Constellation entered service in 1961 as the second unit of the Kitty Hawk class, that is the last generation of American carriers with conventional propulsion. Her building was marked by an extensive fire in December 1960, which held the ship up by months. What followed, however, was four decades of service: repeated deployments off the coast of Vietnam, cruises in the Persian Gulf and the role of a flagship, which her crews recalled with the nickname Connie. She was decommissioned in 2003.

The hull measures over three hundred meters, so converted into 1:350 it gives a model more than ninety centimeters long. That is a size which calls for a display case thought out in advance and a table on which work can be done in sections.

Building and the scope of the work

The sprues of injection-molded plastic take in the hull, the flight deck, the superstructure with the island and the accompanying deck equipment. The set is meant to be assembled and painted by the builder; it is neither finished nor painted. It is worth giving the flight deck special care, because its markings and its shade carry the whole impression the model makes.

For a collector of ships this is the kind of project that runs for several months. Photo-etched accessories with railings, nets and deck equipment are made in the same scale, and with them the result can be moved to exhibition level. They are produced separately and are not part of this kit.

The color scheme is restrained: the side and the superstructure in naval gray, the flight deck in a dark tone with white and yellow markings. It is precisely the sharpness of those lines that decides whether the finished work looks like a warship or like a gray block.