Robert Fulton has built some of the most famous ships in history.

His first boat – the USS Constitution – is the oldest commissioned warship afloat.

Of course, the scale model sitting on his dresser is not the same one that fought in the War of 1812. But the little ship – complete with miniature lifeboats, masts, cannons and anchor – brings to life the details of the vessel known as "Old Ironsides."

"Building a (model) boat, you need so many specialties: how to bend lumber, how to put a finish on that you like. ... Some ships you have to do some soldering. If you do radio-controlled, you have electronic things," said Fulton, 73. "There is always something different, and that makes it fun."

Model shipbuilding has been Fulton's hobby for seven years, and he has seven boats to show for it, including the Cutty Sark, HMS Victory, Calypso Queen and the King of the Mississippi. Sitting on his mantle, in his library or in his workshop, which he calls the "Ship Yard," each model is a testament to a year of its builder's time, effort and patience.

The retired chemist had no shipbuilding experience – real or model – when he received his first kit in the mail in 2001. He built model airplanes for a few years before switching to boats. His teacher was trial and error, and the lessons were long.

"You get something, and you have no idea how in the heck you are going to do it. Pretty soon, you get a few ideas, and you start building them and before you know it, it is done. ... You don't always get it the first time. The second time will be a little bit better but (not) good enough. Then you do it the third time," said Fulton of Rocky Mount.

People who build model ships often are older, usually retired and have at least a little bit of the perfectionist in them, said Remy Haynes, manager of Aeromarine Laminates, a race boat model manufacturer in Seaford, Del. Aeromarine is also the U.S. distributor of the scale ships Fulton prefers to build, which come from an English company called JoTiKa Ltd.

"You have to have a lot of patience, but you also have to be tenacious. You can't give up on one thing before you move onto the next. You have to take things in order. You have to be very organized," Haynes said.

While Fulton doesn't consider himself a perfectionist, he is disciplined and methodical. A person almost has to be with a hobby like this. Most days, from around noon to 5 p.m., he can be found working in his shop.

Fulton has mixed feelings about his work. He loves building the ships and is proud of his work. But when someone compliments them, he is acutely aware that they are not perfect.

"I know that there are a lot of mistakes in those boats. You name the boat here, and there are a million mistakes in it. It is sort of embarrassing," Fulton said.

"Nobody knows that but you," said his wife of 25 years, Del Fulton.

"Well, I suppose that is true no matter how good you get. The mistakes just get smaller and smaller," Fulton said.

Despite the amount of her husband's time the hobby consumes, Del Fulton appreciates that it keeps him working and his mind occupied.

"Otherwise he would just be probably sitting around the television set," said Del Fulton, 71. "He has got a very technical mind. He's got a lot of education. He needs something to keep his mind busy."

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It has been two weeks since Fulton finished his last model, the HMS Victory, which took about a year and half to build. This week he will be building new cabinets to house the ships while he waits for his next kit, which will be a more detailed version of HMS Victory.

Fulton is excited. Getting a new kit to him is like Christmas. He said he has already read the online manuals for it about 30 times.

The new HMS Victory kit has 783 different types of parts – ranging from planks to strings to tiny little window frames for the holes the cannons peek out of – and is expected to take 3,000 hours to complete. A given type of part might have one piece or it might have several hundred. Fulton estimated he put about 1,600 hours in the last Victory, which had around 350 types of parts.

"I spent a half hour trying to tie one knot. Putting the sails and string on that ship took three months," Fulton said.

The detail that goes into these models is incomprehensible to many people, Haynes said. The kits come with extensive manuals and even blueprints to help create heirloom-quality ships.

"They are very, very detailed kits, so much so that they actually take paint shavings from the actual ships, they color match them and then they come up with the right paints for them for the models. ... If they are done correctly and done in the right hands, they could be put into a museum, that is how beautiful they are," Haynes said.

That kind of detail doesn't come cheap. This newest kit will cost almost $1,000, about double what Fulton normally pays. The cost may seem too high to some people for something like a model ship, but he is quick to put it in perspective.

"These boats, they will cost about $400, and then you have to buy glue and paint and all that other stuff. So maybe you've got $500 tied up in it. OK that is my total hobby cost for a year and a half," Fulton said.

These ships can be works of art – something to pass down through the generations, Haynes said.

Fulton hopes he can do more than just pass the ships down. Recently, his 4-year-old granddaughter, Skye Loux, helped him clean the Calypso Queen while he was taking the dust off with a Q-Tip. Skye has been the only one of his six grandchildren to express interest in the ships so far, he said.

"I told her when she gets a couple more years age to her, she can help me build those boats if she is interested. She was interested," Fulton said with a grin.