Jaager

Johnny,
There is a reason that 95% ethanol (EtOH) is the strongest that can be easily had.
Ethanol forms a non-covalent but very strong bond with water that saturates at 5% water.  It takes serious energy to remove the last 5% - one method was boiling in benzene.  The ethanol then has to be in a sealed container - like a glass ampule.  With any exposure to air - the water vapor in air is "pulled" into the ethanol until it becomes a 95% solution again.  It essence, it is impractical to try for anything above 95%.
Denatured means that a chemical is added that makes you vomit if you drink it.   The federal tax on alcohol is close to $30.00 per gal of 95%.  This what "Thunder Road" was all about.  Denature it and there is no tax.
I have a gallon tin of 99% isopropanol (IsoOH)  -  My idea there was 1- no water  and 2- longer open times.  I am not sure that the difference is enough to matter though.  I wonder if something else was going on with the Everclear? 
 
Methanol -  if exposed to the same metabolic pathway as ethanol in the body produces formaldehyde and formic acid.  A small amount probably only damages the liver - where it is formed - a larger amount that allows some to get back into the blood stream - brain and optic nerve react poorly to exposure.

I just remembered = About the veneer.   Saw sliced is as good as any other stock.   But because sawing also involves significant loss to kerf,  the budget version of veneer is blade sliced.  There is no loss the kerf, but the wood comes off like pulling on a roll of Bounty.  This is unnatural for the wood grain and it always "wants" to return to the curled shape.  It will fight with the glue holding it down forever.

It is your unrealistic expectation about what instructions can help you with and lead you thru that can leave you as one of the majority who attempt this model ship building-  an ash shadow on the field.
A plastic kit is the assembly of a model - instructions can lead you thru it.
A wooden ship model is something entirely different.  It is the assembly of many models.  But you must also fabricate each of those models before you.can assemble them.
It would require that instructions be complete for fabrication as well as assembly.  Tools are needed for the fabrication.  Each tool has its own level of required knowledge and practice for you to get it to do the job that you wish. 
A ship in any culture at any time involves everything that that culture can produce at its most sophisticated level.  Thru the 17th and much of the 18th it also involved its level in the visual arts.
Every part of a ship is unique in shape.  Essentially everything is curved.  Each curve is different.  The primary material is wood.  It too involves a much deeper level of experience with it than any synthetic product.
Good plans and instructions should show you WHAT you have to fabricate.  It is almost impossible to tell or show you HOW.   It just involves too much.  It means that if you have to ask,  then you do not already have the skills - developed from prior experience - to just jump in the deep end. 
 
It is certainly possible to start with a monster like Victory and see it thru to finish.  But the learning part makes it go slowly and the rewards and positive feedback is so slow in coming that few have the patience to do it.

This is two generations after I started all this and I have no hands on experience  with kits in this series,   ( I did start with the old Model Shipways  kits - yellow box  - carved Basswood hulls.)
but if you have little or no experience with hardwood woodworking - especially at scale level - (plastic kits as a lead-in probably only helps with painting at scale - and given the kits that you express an interest in - there will be little to no painting with the wood)  -  you might consider a careful and sure footed entry into all this.
 
https://modelexpo-online.com/Model-Shipways-Lowell-Grand-Banks-Dory-with-Tools-124-Scale-Skill-Level-I-of-the-Shipwright-Learning-Series_p_3959.html
 
A boat is certainly not as sexy as a first rate  or a cutter even  -  but even cutters had boats -  understanding boats is a valuable skill/knowledge base  and the actual work will give you enough of a taste to know if this is something that you really want to plunge into without investing a house payment.
 
Reading:   For Beginners -- A Cautionary Tale    would be time well spent.
 

If there is a WoodCraft close to you, they have packages of Hard Maple veneer and Black Cherry veneer.  They are sheets, but a knife and straight edge can turn it into strip wood.
Maple is close to the color of the species of Pine used urr decking and roofs. 
 
AYC is soft - but it holds an edge well and the fibers do not roll.  There is no observable grain.
Pear and Castelo are very hard and also have no observable grain. 
Any of the five species will work as frame timbers, deck beams, keels  and everything else making up a hull.  Three that you ask about are also excellent for decorative carving.
 
Working any of them -   the danger is:  it will spoil you and you will not be satisfied with any of the cheap crap supplied with most mass market kits.   It could also seriously infect you with the scratch build bug. 

Lee Valley has dry shellac flakes.   It is packaged in two weights   1/4 lb  for  $8.50  and 1 lb for $27.00      Three colors  light amber - which super blonde or clear ( or about as clear as shellac gets
Amber  which is regular (I think)   and dark amber which I thick is ruby.
I have light and dark.    The solubility of shellac in EtOH is inversely proportional to the wax content.  That is, the darker it is the more soluble it is.
I make up a 10% solution =  10 grams in 100 ml of EtOH.   that is close to 1 lb cut and for light is close to saturation.
Dry flakes do not store for 10 years.  The new went into solution quickly,   Some old Tiger Super Blonde flakes that I have had for about 10 years only partially dissolved.  Take home lesson:  if the flakes do not quickly dissolve, buy a new batch.  Buying the larger and lower cost per weight quantities is false economy.
For our uses the 1/4 lb is enough for the small surface area that we produce.
 
All of the negative factors for shellac as a final finish relate to full size furniture.  We are not going to set a wet glass with condensation on a model.  We are not going to abrade it in daily use.
 
My HMS Centurion is framed using Hard  Maple.  The Maple is a bit lighter than I wish. -  It is my intent to prime it with 5% super blonde  and then use as many coats of Dark as it need to get it looking like the NMM models done using Boxwood.
A rag with EtOH is a quick reverse gear if I go too far.

It is your unrealistic expectation about what instructions can help you with and lead you thru that can leave you as one of the majority who attempt this model ship building-  an ash shadow on the field.
A plastic kit is the assembly of a model - instructions can lead you thru it.
A wooden ship model is something entirely different.  It is the assembly of many models.  But you must also fabricate each of those models before you.can assemble them.
It would require that instructions be complete for fabrication as well as assembly.  Tools are needed for the fabrication.  Each tool has its own level of required knowledge and practice for you to get it to do the job that you wish. 
A ship in any culture at any time involves everything that that culture can produce at its most sophisticated level.  Thru the 17th and much of the 18th it also involved its level in the visual arts.
Every part of a ship is unique in shape.  Essentially everything is curved.  Each curve is different.  The primary material is wood.  It too involves a much deeper level of experience with it than any synthetic product.
Good plans and instructions should show you WHAT you have to fabricate.  It is almost impossible to tell or show you HOW.   It just involves too much.  It means that if you have to ask,  then you do not already have the skills - developed from prior experience - to just jump in the deep end. 
 
It is certainly possible to start with a monster like Victory and see it thru to finish.  But the learning part makes it go slowly and the rewards and positive feedback is so slow in coming that few have the patience to do it.

This is two generations after I started all this and I have no hands on experience  with kits in this series,   ( I did start with the old Model Shipways  kits - yellow box  - carved Basswood hulls.)
but if you have little or no experience with hardwood woodworking - especially at scale level - (plastic kits as a lead-in probably only helps with painting at scale - and given the kits that you express an interest in - there will be little to no painting with the wood)  -  you might consider a careful and sure footed entry into all this.
 
https://modelexpo-online.com/Model-Shipways-Lowell-Grand-Banks-Dory-with-Tools-124-Scale-Skill-Level-I-of-the-Shipwright-Learning-Series_p_3959.html
 
A boat is certainly not as sexy as a first rate  or a cutter even  -  but even cutters had boats -  understanding boats is a valuable skill/knowledge base  and the actual work will give you enough of a taste to know if this is something that you really want to plunge into without investing a house payment.
 
Reading:   For Beginners -- A Cautionary Tale    would be time well spent.
 

Lee Valley has dry shellac flakes.   It is packaged in two weights   1/4 lb  for  $8.50  and 1 lb for $27.00      Three colors  light amber - which super blonde or clear ( or about as clear as shellac gets
Amber  which is regular (I think)   and dark amber which I thick is ruby.
I have light and dark.    The solubility of shellac in EtOH is inversely proportional to the wax content.  That is, the darker it is the more soluble it is.
I make up a 10% solution =  10 grams in 100 ml of EtOH.   that is close to 1 lb cut and for light is close to saturation.
Dry flakes do not store for 10 years.  The new went into solution quickly,   Some old Tiger Super Blonde flakes that I have had for about 10 years only partially dissolved.  Take home lesson:  if the flakes do not quickly dissolve, buy a new batch.  Buying the larger and lower cost per weight quantities is false economy.
For our uses the 1/4 lb is enough for the small surface area that we produce.
 
All of the negative factors for shellac as a final finish relate to full size furniture.  We are not going to set a wet glass with condensation on a model.  We are not going to abrade it in daily use.
 
My HMS Centurion is framed using Hard  Maple.  The Maple is a bit lighter than I wish. -  It is my intent to prime it with 5% super blonde  and then use as many coats of Dark as it need to get it looking like the NMM models done using Boxwood.
A rag with EtOH is a quick reverse gear if I go too far.

The amber colored shellac is called "orange" shellac. It's the same thing, just unbleached. (You can get orange dewaxed shellac, also. For ship modeling purposes, in fact, for most purposes, it doesn't matter if shellac is "waxed" or "dewaxed." Clear shellac has much less wax in it than darker colored shellac. The only issue with the natural wax in shellac is that it can sometimes cause problems with oil-based over-coatings such as gloss varathanes.) The "orange" shellac builds up to a very deep dark brown and is useful for classic furniture finishing. The "white" (clear) shellac is colorless. I buy Zinsser pre-mixed in the can. You can buy dry shellac flakes and mix them in your own denatured alcohol, but that's an extra step. If you want thicker shellac, just pour a little into an open container and let the alcohol evaporate until it's the consistency you want. Thick ("gooey") shellac is a good adhesive for some purposes. 
 
Shellac replaces a lot of adhesives in ship modeling. It's particularly useful in "gluing" rigging knots. (Nothing's more frustrating that tying off a line and cutting the tail, only to have the line come loose from a belaying pin, or whatever.) A drop of shellac on the knot will set it forever, but if you need to untie it sometime later, just a drop of alcohol will melt the shellac and easy untying or repositioning. Let the shellac dry before cutting off the end. It's similarly useful for preventing thread ends from fraying and, by applying shellac to a length of line, it can be formed to a catenary while drying and will stay that way when fully dried. Shellac is perfect for fixing hanks of line and gun tackle coils so they appear to hang naturally and don't move. It's also good for "hardening" soft woods like basswood. Lay on a generous coat of thinned shellac and let it soak into the wood. When dry, you can sand the surface easily without raising "fuzz." I'd put shellac right up there with sliced bread as one of the world's great inventions.

An alternative to joggle sticks ("pick up sticks") which is often helpful in tight spaces is to bend a strip of lead or annealed copper or brass against the shape to be picked up. The "dead soft" metal strip will hold the shape when bent and, when turned on its side, will serve a template against which the shape can be drawn with a pencil. 

For years, I used a Sears 16 gal wet/dry shopvac that was so loud that hearing protection was needed to avoid hours of ringing ears.
Going for the quiet, I bought a Festool Midi - a now discontinued model.  One that for some reason did not want a cyclone trap in-line.
It was less noisy and pulled enough air volume, but it has one characteristic that makes it useless to me and a wasted $600.  It stops after a few minutes.  I need an hour or more, not 10 minutes and me having to cycles the on-off.  
I bought a 14gal Rigid at Home Depot  for $100 that is just as quiet, and stays on.  It is for my garage.  In my model room, I use an Atrix Canister Revo Red Vacuum . It has a clear trap chamber.  No silent, but not painful either, 
 

I often use a cotton pad -  lots of spent Tee shirts and worn out sheets are around.  That is how French Polish was done
My aversion to spray anything is that aerosolized anything can be inhaled.  Bad luck if it is something that is potentially deadly - even 30 years on.
The best protection is to nit get it airborne to begin with.   Molecules that are naturally a gas at RT  can be a problem, but easy in can be easy out.
Something that would never be a gas at RT would condense and require external action to remove it.
An example of the damage being disproportionate to the insult  was a JAMA or NEJM Q&A:  You are on a crowded bus with someone with an active TB infection.
How many TB bacilli do you have to inhale to become infected?  The answer is = one.
 

It is your unrealistic expectation about what instructions can help you with and lead you thru that can leave you as one of the majority who attempt this model ship building-  an ash shadow on the field.
A plastic kit is the assembly of a model - instructions can lead you thru it.
A wooden ship model is something entirely different.  It is the assembly of many models.  But you must also fabricate each of those models before you.can assemble them.
It would require that instructions be complete for fabrication as well as assembly.  Tools are needed for the fabrication.  Each tool has its own level of required knowledge and practice for you to get it to do the job that you wish. 
A ship in any culture at any time involves everything that that culture can produce at its most sophisticated level.  Thru the 17th and much of the 18th it also involved its level in the visual arts.
Every part of a ship is unique in shape.  Essentially everything is curved.  Each curve is different.  The primary material is wood.  It too involves a much deeper level of experience with it than any synthetic product.
Good plans and instructions should show you WHAT you have to fabricate.  It is almost impossible to tell or show you HOW.   It just involves too much.  It means that if you have to ask,  then you do not already have the skills - developed from prior experience - to just jump in the deep end. 
 
It is certainly possible to start with a monster like Victory and see it thru to finish.  But the learning part makes it go slowly and the rewards and positive feedback is so slow in coming that few have the patience to do it.

This is two generations after I started all this and I have no hands on experience  with kits in this series,   ( I did start with the old Model Shipways  kits - yellow box  - carved Basswood hulls.)
but if you have little or no experience with hardwood woodworking - especially at scale level - (plastic kits as a lead-in probably only helps with painting at scale - and given the kits that you express an interest in - there will be little to no painting with the wood)  -  you might consider a careful and sure footed entry into all this.
 
https://modelexpo-online.com/Model-Shipways-Lowell-Grand-Banks-Dory-with-Tools-124-Scale-Skill-Level-I-of-the-Shipwright-Learning-Series_p_3959.html
 
A boat is certainly not as sexy as a first rate  or a cutter even  -  but even cutters had boats -  understanding boats is a valuable skill/knowledge base  and the actual work will give you enough of a taste to know if this is something that you really want to plunge into without investing a house payment.
 
Reading:   For Beginners -- A Cautionary Tale    would be time well spent.
 

This is two generations after I started all this and I have no hands on experience  with kits in this series,   ( I did start with the old Model Shipways  kits - yellow box  - carved Basswood hulls.)
but if you have little or no experience with hardwood woodworking - especially at scale level - (plastic kits as a lead-in probably only helps with painting at scale - and given the kits that you express an interest in - there will be little to no painting with the wood)  -  you might consider a careful and sure footed entry into all this.
 
https://modelexpo-online.com/Model-Shipways-Lowell-Grand-Banks-Dory-with-Tools-124-Scale-Skill-Level-I-of-the-Shipwright-Learning-Series_p_3959.html
 
A boat is certainly not as sexy as a first rate  or a cutter even  -  but even cutters had boats -  understanding boats is a valuable skill/knowledge base  and the actual work will give you enough of a taste to know if this is something that you really want to plunge into without investing a house payment.
 
Reading:   For Beginners -- A Cautionary Tale    would be time well spent.
 

I agree with GrandpaPhil.
 
The other kits on your list leave a lot to be desired for a first wood ship kit..
They would tend to be more discouraging than helpful in getting started in this hobby.
 

Certainly, that could work easily. No need for epoxy, however. Thin shellac should do the trick easily. It will saturate the paper easily. There should be no need to glue the disks together. Just push a pin into the center of the stack of disks and soak them in shellac. This is how they used to make insulated electronic components in the days before plastics.

This is another armchair experiment (denken experimenten) :
In light of the suggestion that the Dremel carbide cutoff disks be strengthened by a coat of low viscosity epoxy,
could sheaves be made from paper or cardboard soaked with epoxy?
A cork borer! could be used to cut the disk.  ! (a metal tube - usually brass -with one end pared to a knife edge)
Three layers of paper - the middle having a smaller diameter - makes the groove-   It could be made in any color.

This is another armchair experiment (denken experimenten) :
In light of the suggestion that the Dremel carbide cutoff disks be strengthened by a coat of low viscosity epoxy,
could sheaves be made from paper or cardboard soaked with epoxy?
A cork borer! could be used to cut the disk.  ! (a metal tube - usually brass -with one end pared to a knife edge)
Three layers of paper - the middle having a smaller diameter - makes the groove-   It could be made in any color.

For years, I used a Sears 16 gal wet/dry shopvac that was so loud that hearing protection was needed to avoid hours of ringing ears.
Going for the quiet, I bought a Festool Midi - a now discontinued model.  One that for some reason did not want a cyclone trap in-line.
It was less noisy and pulled enough air volume, but it has one characteristic that makes it useless to me and a wasted $600.  It stops after a few minutes.  I need an hour or more, not 10 minutes and me having to cycles the on-off.  
I bought a 14gal Rigid at Home Depot  for $100 that is just as quiet, and stays on.  It is for my garage.  In my model room, I use an Atrix Canister Revo Red Vacuum . It has a clear trap chamber.  No silent, but not painful either, 
 

I just love how I learn something new from nearly every one of your posts, Kurt! (And, reading back issues of Ships in Scale, the same goes for your fine articles in that publication.) In this instance, I must confess that despite my life-long wide-ranging pursuit of nautical trivia, I've never until now encountered a seaman's speculum which, of course, sent me scurrying to Google. While never having had any first-hand encounters with a speculum, seaman's or otherwise, I'd previously understood it to be a medical instrument commonly employed by gynecologists and proctologists.
 
It's not unusual that we find medical and dental instruments useful in ship modeling, but I'm at a loss to see what use a modeler might find for a speculum in the model shipyard, except, perhaps, to gently spread rigging in order to access inaccessible inboard areas. My "Googling" reveals that disposable speculums are now made in plastic. Might these be particularly useful to plastic model builders? "Enquiring minds want to know" what use modelers, or seamen, for that matter, might have for a speculum?    
 
 
 
      

We have had a recent discussion that essentially pointed out that experience with plastic kits is not much help in prep for tackling a wooden kit.   One is pure assembly and the other is fabrication and assembly.  Plastic kit instructions are generally complete as far as assembly.  In comparison mass market wooden kit instructions are more general  and especially for fabrication there is an expectation that outside text and journal articles will be used as supplements.  There is often frustration and unrealized expectations. with wooden kit instructions   This is why the "start simple" admonition is almost a natural law.   For large and complex wooden ship models there is much skill , knowledge and experience that is expected  in a modeler who attempts it.
 
That said, the rigging is the same in plastic and wood.   Although, the hull is still of some size, 1:150 is a miniature scale.  It is difficult to find rigging line that is usable and in harmony with the scale.
The Le Superbe that i am familiar with is a Sane designed 74.  There were many sisters built in this class.   Boudroit started his published inventory with a 4 volume monograph of this class.   The masting and rigging  are about as well documented as is possible.
Scale limitations in available material will make matching the text very difficult.  Avoiding being over scale is a real challenge.
The spars made from plastic at larger scales are fragile.  Having tension taut rigging and not snapping the plastic spars, I suspect is a long shot.  The taut lines probably have to come rigid before placement material.  Wire is better than fiber at this.  

This is what I was referring to.   Fitted to the outer edge of the wale would work.   In a model, it does not matter - as long as the outer edge of the channel is as far out as needed.  But should you be attempting to replicate actual practice in your model, reducing the wale thickness would not be done.   It was acknowledged  to be a potential disaster at worst and bad practice at best, when gunports were cut into a wale.  The guns were the reason that a warship even existed, so it was done where necessary anyway.
 
As far as a the bolts being drilled thru the width of a channel,  the major force on a channel is in the same plane as the bolts.  The bolts were probably stronger than the wood, but the bolts would not be in line with a chain. 

This is what I was referring to.   Fitted to the outer edge of the wale would work.   In a model, it does not matter - as long as the outer edge of the channel is as far out as needed.  But should you be attempting to replicate actual practice in your model, reducing the wale thickness would not be done.   It was acknowledged  to be a potential disaster at worst and bad practice at best, when gunports were cut into a wale.  The guns were the reason that a warship even existed, so it was done where necessary anyway.
 
As far as a the bolts being drilled thru the width of a channel,  the major force on a channel is in the same plane as the bolts.  The bolts were probably stronger than the wood, but the bolts would not be in line with a chain.