Jaager

Mark,
 
The remark about builders plans was meant as bait for others.  It was not aimed at you.  There is/are thread/s about the USN pre War of 1812 frigates that seem to disparage builders plans and get way into the weeds, making a major production of microscopic factors.  The implied tone is that unless the plans are perfect, a model of the ship should not be attempted.  Maybe if the build was for display in a naval historical museum, I see the the validity, but otherwise, not so much.
About your above comments,  I am all but horrified when I see a model of the supposed 1799 frigate with an elliptical stern. "That's just not right."

Mark,
 
The remark about builders plans was meant as bait for others.  It was not aimed at you.  There is/are thread/s about the USN pre War of 1812 frigates that seem to disparage builders plans and get way into the weeds, making a major production of microscopic factors.  The implied tone is that unless the plans are perfect, a model of the ship should not be attempted.  Maybe if the build was for display in a naval historical museum, I see the the validity, but otherwise, not so much.
About your above comments,  I am all but horrified when I see a model of the supposed 1799 frigate with an elliptical stern. "That's just not right."

The plans you mentioned sound like  a good source, Jaager.
 
I'm not distaining builders plans.  The problem was that many if not most of the Constellation plans available back in the early 1900's were cobbled, changed, and some destroyed while the ship folks worked to turn the 1854 version into the original.  They tried to make (and mostly succeeded) in getting people to believe that when the original went in, it was taken apart and rebuilt into the the 1854 version, thus the rounded stern and the ship being a bit bigger than the original.
 
 

Mark,
 
HIC drew the builders plan for Congress/Constellation (HIC #8)  so SI would be one possible source.
 
I am perplexed by the disdain expressed for the value of builders plans.  At base it is a chance to see how our shipyards do using the original source.
 

Wood flour of the planking species mixed with PVA ( Titebond II for me).

Caution is advised regarding this name.  It was used for two different ships.  The 1799 frigate underwent the fade based evolution at a time of great change, so the year that you are representing has an affect on the dimensions.  There is data in the Appendix of HASN.
The second ship with this name still sort of exists.  It was a corvette and the last of the sailing warships for the USN.  It has undergone several severe cosmetic alterations, some pure fantasy that tried to make it into the 1799 frigate.  HASN has dimensions for Albany that are within a decade of the launch of the corvette.
The various captains had a lot of say in how these ships were spared and some were fad prone.  This is probably a situation were close enough is good enough.
 
A more important factor is to get the spared and rigged model into a protective case.  A view of restoration logs here should demonstrate the result of leaving a model of a sailing vessel open to the environment.

Caution is advised regarding this name.  It was used for two different ships.  The 1799 frigate underwent the fade based evolution at a time of great change, so the year that you are representing has an affect on the dimensions.  There is data in the Appendix of HASN.
The second ship with this name still sort of exists.  It was a corvette and the last of the sailing warships for the USN.  It has undergone several severe cosmetic alterations, some pure fantasy that tried to make it into the 1799 frigate.  HASN has dimensions for Albany that are within a decade of the launch of the corvette.
The various captains had a lot of say in how these ships were spared and some were fad prone.  This is probably a situation were close enough is good enough.
 
A more important factor is to get the spared and rigged model into a protective case.  A view of restoration logs here should demonstrate the result of leaving a model of a sailing vessel open to the environment.

Ash, like Hickory and any Oak, has open pores and a distinct and distracting grain.  This causes any one of them to be a poor choice for any part that is to be left natural.  It also requires that the pores be filled if any of these species are to be painted.
If the framing is to be completely planked over and the deck is completely planked, Ash will serve, since it will be totally hidden.
 
Pet peeve about the internet:
Now, about your question as asked,  This is not any sort of competition.  A ranking based on some arbitrary score serves no purpose.  Using the superlative tense is some creature of the internet, and in most cases takes a discussion in a non productive direction. In addition, the best in a group that is all crap, is still crap.  A productive ask would be a search for excellence.  You do not supply your location on Terra.  If you are located in eastern North America, and you are seeking commercially available domestic wood that is a reasonable price,  Hard Maple and Black Cherry are excellent species to use for framing.  If you can harvest, mill and season your own wood, the choice of excellent species becomes a much larger one.

My comment on this is a bit late to the dance, but I missed this thread on the first bounce.
 
As for milling, my late friend Elof Granberg invented the "Alaskan mill" chainsaw planking mill and I've played with them some. They do work, but their kerf is large. They are fine if your are milling large logs, but not practical for small stuff. As you note, securing the small logs for cutting is a problem. 
 
I've found that for modeling stock, which doesn't have to be large dimension stuff, splitting the log is often a good way to go for logs that are too big for my 14" bandsaw. I rip a cut the length of the log with a circular saw and then drive wedges into the kerf and split the log into halves, quarters, and so on, until it's small enough to handle on the bandsaw. I square two sides on my jointer, or plane one face by hand and then  cut slabs off with the bandsaw. I keep billets fairly large and mill pieces as needed from the billets instead of trying to mill a bunch of standard sized stock. Building boats or models, nothing is dimensioned lumber ever anyway. It saves a lot of wood that way. You only cut what you need.
 
Another advantage of splitting your logs is that you minimize grain run-out. Trees are basically "cones" with the "rings" getting progressively smaller as the trunk or branch tapers upward. By splitting along the grain, you know that side of your piece has its grain running right along the split, instead of running off the edges of your planks when cut square. Sawyers of commercial stock would never do that these days because they can get more lumber out of a straight cut than they can along the ring, but modeling stock is small bits and pieces and we can afford to be "wasteful" when we mill it.
 

Ash, like Hickory and any Oak, has open pores and a distinct and distracting grain.  This causes any one of them to be a poor choice for any part that is to be left natural.  It also requires that the pores be filled if any of these species are to be painted.
If the framing is to be completely planked over and the deck is completely planked, Ash will serve, since it will be totally hidden.
 
Pet peeve about the internet:
Now, about your question as asked,  This is not any sort of competition.  A ranking based on some arbitrary score serves no purpose.  Using the superlative tense is some creature of the internet, and in most cases takes a discussion in a non productive direction. In addition, the best in a group that is all crap, is still crap.  A productive ask would be a search for excellence.  You do not supply your location on Terra.  If you are located in eastern North America, and you are seeking commercially available domestic wood that is a reasonable price,  Hard Maple and Black Cherry are excellent species to use for framing.  If you can harvest, mill and season your own wood, the choice of excellent species becomes a much larger one.

Devildog,
You may have more resources than you realize.  The Washington Ship Model Society is based in northern Virginia.  Between it and the local woodworkers  guild and the local schools, you may have access to the use of the necessary machinery to produce your own stock.
Not far from you - in Elkwood, VA is C.P.Johnson Lumber - with excellent prices on Hard Maple, Black Cherry, Yellow Poplar, Yellow Birch  their inventory is out of the two exotics that I would consider = Yellow Heart (Pau Amarillo) and Granadillo (Macacauba).  The other domestics have unuseful grain characteristics.
 
 

If support for a sail does not fit, could it fit another function?  Would it work as part of a crane?  Would there be work for a floating crane during its period.
I tried to imagine how or even why it would function as a single mast with alternate steps.

Unless you are going to build your own, I would consider getting the sliding table.  Makes cross cutting so much easier -- and more importantly, much safer.
 
Not sure if Jim is still building them, but consider getting a wider table top for the saw.  With the wider table, you can keep the fence on the table while using the sliding table, rather than have to remove and reinstall the fence when changing the cuts you're making.

This product system may be a solution:
Modern Masters AM203-04 Metal Effects Primer , 4-Ounce
Modern Masters ME149-06 Reactive Metallic Copper
Modern Masters PA901-04 Aging Solution Green
Modern Masters PA902-04 Aging Solution Blue Patina, 4-Ounce
 
there is a comment on Amazon about it having been used on plastic.

I made a simple one that worked for some Holly,  but It was nowhere close to being a spec based kiln.
 
1" foil faced sheathing cut up to make a 4 sided box.  The end pieces were Home Depot craft 1" Styrofoam.  It was in a wall shelf, so it was just a push fit.
Heat source - 200-300 Watts of incand. light bulbs.  The bulbs ought not to get close to the foam or touch the wood.  I only had wire clamp bulb fixtures, but next time I would get ceramic fixtures -
I used a computer muffin fan for exhaust of water vapor.  The loose fit was the air intake.
There are low cost probe moisture meters and I used a battery thermometer that saved the highest temp.  It was in my garage, so the temp was affected by ambient.
 
I did not want to cook the Holly, I just wanted the temp to be higher than what Blue Mold would like.  I was in no hurry to season it, but that mold invades quickly.
It was already too late for the stock that came out of my cousin's wood pile,  But unlike what mold did to some Apple I stored incorrectly (oatmeal instead of wood in structure) 
infected Holly is still sound.  It is just not white.  But my cousin's Holly is yellowish anyway.  Like Apple,  Plum is going to have sugar in its transported water.  My take home lesson from
the long ago Apple experience =  slow seasoning of 6-8" logs will have problems from mold as well as being prone to splitting - especially if the cut ends and branch cuts are not completely sealed.
I was in my early 20's and had never seen a bandsaw, much less know what one was for.

I made a simple one that worked for some Holly,  but It was nowhere close to being a spec based kiln.
 
1" foil faced sheathing cut up to make a 4 sided box.  The end pieces were Home Depot craft 1" Styrofoam.  It was in a wall shelf, so it was just a push fit.
Heat source - 200-300 Watts of incand. light bulbs.  The bulbs ought not to get close to the foam or touch the wood.  I only had wire clamp bulb fixtures, but next time I would get ceramic fixtures -
I used a computer muffin fan for exhaust of water vapor.  The loose fit was the air intake.
There are low cost probe moisture meters and I used a battery thermometer that saved the highest temp.  It was in my garage, so the temp was affected by ambient.
 
I did not want to cook the Holly, I just wanted the temp to be higher than what Blue Mold would like.  I was in no hurry to season it, but that mold invades quickly.
It was already too late for the stock that came out of my cousin's wood pile,  But unlike what mold did to some Apple I stored incorrectly (oatmeal instead of wood in structure) 
infected Holly is still sound.  It is just not white.  But my cousin's Holly is yellowish anyway.  Like Apple,  Plum is going to have sugar in its transported water.  My take home lesson from
the long ago Apple experience =  slow seasoning of 6-8" logs will have problems from mold as well as being prone to splitting - especially if the cut ends and branch cuts are not completely sealed.
I was in my early 20's and had never seen a bandsaw, much less know what one was for.

Any fruit wood is usually an excellent choice.  The best time to harvest is usually when the tree is dormant.
It will probably be harder that Cherry,  close the Apple - which is King.
For hull planking, you will have to see the actual planks re: the color and uniformity. But for anything else, fittings, furniture, catheads, beams, etc. it will be excellent.
The harvesting technique has been covered in this form several times.
The short list is:
seal the ends - old paint will serve  do it ASAP
debark - insect larvae that bore live there.  Drawknives were designed for this but freehand bandsaw is less actual work, but can cost more wood
Get it into billets soonest if you can.  A free standing bandsaw is the more efficient tool to do this.
Sticker - good ventilation and air circulation - in a covered location or an atic  Access to a kiln gets the seasoned wood more quickly. Air drying = 1 year per inch in thickness.

I made a simple one that worked for some Holly,  but It was nowhere close to being a spec based kiln.
 
1" foil faced sheathing cut up to make a 4 sided box.  The end pieces were Home Depot craft 1" Styrofoam.  It was in a wall shelf, so it was just a push fit.
Heat source - 200-300 Watts of incand. light bulbs.  The bulbs ought not to get close to the foam or touch the wood.  I only had wire clamp bulb fixtures, but next time I would get ceramic fixtures -
I used a computer muffin fan for exhaust of water vapor.  The loose fit was the air intake.
There are low cost probe moisture meters and I used a battery thermometer that saved the highest temp.  It was in my garage, so the temp was affected by ambient.
 
I did not want to cook the Holly, I just wanted the temp to be higher than what Blue Mold would like.  I was in no hurry to season it, but that mold invades quickly.
It was already too late for the stock that came out of my cousin's wood pile,  But unlike what mold did to some Apple I stored incorrectly (oatmeal instead of wood in structure) 
infected Holly is still sound.  It is just not white.  But my cousin's Holly is yellowish anyway.  Like Apple,  Plum is going to have sugar in its transported water.  My take home lesson from
the long ago Apple experience =  slow seasoning of 6-8" logs will have problems from mold as well as being prone to splitting - especially if the cut ends and branch cuts are not completely sealed.
I was in my early 20's and had never seen a bandsaw, much less know what one was for.

I made a simple one that worked for some Holly,  but It was nowhere close to being a spec based kiln.
 
1" foil faced sheathing cut up to make a 4 sided box.  The end pieces were Home Depot craft 1" Styrofoam.  It was in a wall shelf, so it was just a push fit.
Heat source - 200-300 Watts of incand. light bulbs.  The bulbs ought not to get close to the foam or touch the wood.  I only had wire clamp bulb fixtures, but next time I would get ceramic fixtures -
I used a computer muffin fan for exhaust of water vapor.  The loose fit was the air intake.
There are low cost probe moisture meters and I used a battery thermometer that saved the highest temp.  It was in my garage, so the temp was affected by ambient.
 
I did not want to cook the Holly, I just wanted the temp to be higher than what Blue Mold would like.  I was in no hurry to season it, but that mold invades quickly.
It was already too late for the stock that came out of my cousin's wood pile,  But unlike what mold did to some Apple I stored incorrectly (oatmeal instead of wood in structure) 
infected Holly is still sound.  It is just not white.  But my cousin's Holly is yellowish anyway.  Like Apple,  Plum is going to have sugar in its transported water.  My take home lesson from
the long ago Apple experience =  slow seasoning of 6-8" logs will have problems from mold as well as being prone to splitting - especially if the cut ends and branch cuts are not completely sealed.
I was in my early 20's and had never seen a bandsaw, much less know what one was for.

Any fruit wood is usually an excellent choice.  The best time to harvest is usually when the tree is dormant.
It will probably be harder that Cherry,  close the Apple - which is King.
For hull planking, you will have to see the actual planks re: the color and uniformity. But for anything else, fittings, furniture, catheads, beams, etc. it will be excellent.
The harvesting technique has been covered in this form several times.
The short list is:
seal the ends - old paint will serve  do it ASAP
debark - insect larvae that bore live there.  Drawknives were designed for this but freehand bandsaw is less actual work, but can cost more wood
Get it into billets soonest if you can.  A free standing bandsaw is the more efficient tool to do this.
Sticker - good ventilation and air circulation - in a covered location or an atic  Access to a kiln gets the seasoned wood more quickly. Air drying = 1 year per inch in thickness.

Any fruit wood is usually an excellent choice.  The best time to harvest is usually when the tree is dormant.
It will probably be harder that Cherry,  close the Apple - which is King.
For hull planking, you will have to see the actual planks re: the color and uniformity. But for anything else, fittings, furniture, catheads, beams, etc. it will be excellent.
The harvesting technique has been covered in this form several times.
The short list is:
seal the ends - old paint will serve  do it ASAP
debark - insect larvae that bore live there.  Drawknives were designed for this but freehand bandsaw is less actual work, but can cost more wood
Get it into billets soonest if you can.  A free standing bandsaw is the more efficient tool to do this.
Sticker - good ventilation and air circulation - in a covered location or an atic  Access to a kiln gets the seasoned wood more quickly. Air drying = 1 year per inch in thickness.

Any fruit wood is usually an excellent choice.  The best time to harvest is usually when the tree is dormant.
It will probably be harder that Cherry,  close the Apple - which is King.
For hull planking, you will have to see the actual planks re: the color and uniformity. But for anything else, fittings, furniture, catheads, beams, etc. it will be excellent.
The harvesting technique has been covered in this form several times.
The short list is:
seal the ends - old paint will serve  do it ASAP
debark - insect larvae that bore live there.  Drawknives were designed for this but freehand bandsaw is less actual work, but can cost more wood
Get it into billets soonest if you can.  A free standing bandsaw is the more efficient tool to do this.
Sticker - good ventilation and air circulation - in a covered location or an atic  Access to a kiln gets the seasoned wood more quickly. Air drying = 1 year per inch in thickness.

Hank,
 
Given where this is going to live,  an unfinished chair.   Again, I am not familiar present conditions, but before it was a fad, excellent quality could be had for not that much  money.
But that was back when good furniture was made just west of you in the Hickory area.  If you run out of steam for the environment project, a bare wood chair works as well as  one
that is stained and clear coated.

Hank,
 
One more addition to consider:
 
From a local glass supplier   two   12" x 18"  pieces of  1/4" tempered plate glass  with all edges and corners bevel ground.  If one is good, two is better.
A perfect working surface for everything except tasks that involve banging.  Glue spills or smears - single edge razor blades - precisely flat surface.
I bought mine back before Earth was discovered to be round, so I have no idea if the price is now out of reach.

A dining room style backed chair with a cushioned seat is worth a thought- for where is done, the constantly in one place, watch repair type work.
A backless stool (or two)  with big and at least 5 rollers  and easy height adjust.  Even with 5 rollers,  take care where you place your butt.  
That is unless you wish to practice  for a role in a "Help!  I've fallen and can't get up." commercial.  Those suckers will flip you in an instant.  
This is not theory. 
 
Home Depot  sells craft size pieces of 1" Styrofoam ( starfone in KY ) insulation.   Cut two brick or a bit larger blocks - that are the same size.  PVA glue them together and to a piece of 1/2" ply that has an apron on the four sides.     Poke deep holes in the top to fit hand tools. 
Things like pin vise drills , Kelly clamps,  scissors,  Sharpies,  knives, pencils, small hammers,...   keeps them to hand, but off the bench top.
 
Hot melt works more quickly - is a knee jerk thought, when quick is the only consideration - you really do not want to use hot melt on Styrofoam.