Jaager

The billets do not appear to be wet enough to worry about fungus.  I have never read of chemical fungicides  being used anywhere around this.  
If the ends are not sealed, do that.  Old paint can be used, but you do not wish to contaminate any of the wood with paint spread,  you can melt a pot of candle wax and dip the ends in it.
 
Definitely sticker the billets  ~ 1/4" gap should do -  If you are OCD,  place stickers on the top layer and place a layer of heavy weight - like concrete building blocks.  Where you store them - have good air flow. 

Ummm.  You might consider altering the title to: Bulkhead fairing techniques. 
Your present title is bait for POF scratch builders.
Frames are a whole nuther thing.  While they are just assembled frames, they are beveled as an isolate unit.  A sanding drum with 60 grit or 80 grit does an efficient job for me,  Fine tune with 220 grit.  Once they are placed on the keel, the final fairing can get tricky - if the spaces between the frames are not filled with bracing.  Moving the frames because of too much force being applied is not good.  I have the spaces with temporary filler wood, so I can be vigorous about it.
 
The same problem can occur with POB -it seems to me - in theory.  The molds ( bulkheads ) are just hanging out there, if there is not bracing between them.  Then there is the whole alternative of filling between the molds and thereby provide an adequate base for the planking.

Ummm.  You might consider altering the title to: Bulkhead fairing techniques. 
Your present title is bait for POF scratch builders.
Frames are a whole nuther thing.  While they are just assembled frames, they are beveled as an isolate unit.  A sanding drum with 60 grit or 80 grit does an efficient job for me,  Fine tune with 220 grit.  Once they are placed on the keel, the final fairing can get tricky - if the spaces between the frames are not filled with bracing.  Moving the frames because of too much force being applied is not good.  I have the spaces with temporary filler wood, so I can be vigorous about it.
 
The same problem can occur with POB -it seems to me - in theory.  The molds ( bulkheads ) are just hanging out there, if there is not bracing between them.  Then there is the whole alternative of filling between the molds and thereby provide an adequate base for the planking.

Allan,
Another member brought this up some time ago, apparently the advertised thread count in fabric is not all that straight forward in what it is describing.  I find it confusing, but it may be that 500 or so may be the max available - for what we want it to mean.  If I read it correctly a 1000 count is actually 500 threads, with each thread being two yarns twisted up.  It is probably thicker.  The variety of cotton used - some have longer fibers - and how much fractionation and purification of just the long fibers before twisting up may enter in to it.

Allan,
Another member brought this up some time ago, apparently the advertised thread count in fabric is not all that straight forward in what it is describing.  I find it confusing, but it may be that 500 or so may be the max available - for what we want it to mean.  If I read it correctly a 1000 count is actually 500 threads, with each thread being two yarns twisted up.  It is probably thicker.  The variety of cotton used - some have longer fibers - and how much fractionation and purification of just the long fibers before twisting up may enter in to it.

Wahka_est,
It is not so much that as it is the implication that Danish oil is somehow special.  I have used Tung oil for the same purpose on a DIY Gerstner tool chest.  It is that shellac will do what you want.  With less time needed between coats and a better reverse gear.  The depth can be fine tuned - more coats, more effect. 
 
The following are quotes from Google. No attribution, so no way to judge the accuracy.
 
"Danish oil is a wood finishing oil, often made of tung oil or polymerized linseed oil, although there is no defined formulation so its composition varies among manufacturers. ... It is a "long oil" finish, a mixture of oil and varnish, typically around one-third varnish and the rest oil."
"WATCO Danish Oil is a unique blend of penetrating oil & varnish hardens in the wood, not on the wood. Watco Danish Oil penetrates deep into wood pores to protect from within and to enhance the natural look and feel of the wood. It creates the rich, warm glow of a traditional hand-rubbed finish."  This is obviously advertising copy. (seduction and manipulation)
"Danish oil is easier to use than tung oil because it penetrates wood faster and it also dries faster than tung oil. On the other hand, tung oil cures to a very hard and beautiful, golden finish, which is often worth all the trouble of applying it."

Y.T.,
You must first please yourself.  The grain contrast is a personal factor. 
If you are new enough at this to not realize what kit instructions are intended to ( can't find the verb )  as far as adherence to absolute historical accuracy,  it is proper and expected that you follow them. 
If you are seduced further into all this, more knowledge and sophistication will follow.  It is a natural and necessary progression.  One common to all of us who did not graduate from The Webb Institute with a minor in the historical aspects of ship building (if they even have such a thing). The range of what all of this covers is not an impossible to encompass, open ended challenge.  History has set limits.  Loss of information has allowed for creativity and interpretative challenge.  It is broad enough for a lifetime of interest.
 
I would never enter or judge any sort of contest.  So my opinion is not a factor.  The key for me is to pick a goal and objective for just what is wished to be displayed  and do the best to meet those targets.  That has evolved quite a lot over time. 
 
For your next ship,  if historical accuracy is a goal, look up the shift of the butt joints on deck planking that was actually allowed.  
 
There are very generally two schools of thought on deck and hull fastenings:
none,  because for the deck at least, they were covered with plugs of the same species placed with the same grain orientation and were thus invisible from any distance.
Show,  there was a rule about number and stagger pattern.  There was a rule about diameter. They were not just used at the butt joins.
I like them for two reasons. 1. The look.   2.  Their locations can be used with pins and hitch chocks to hold and clamp until the Titebond dries.  Then if brass pins are used, and brass trunnels wanted, nip and file.  If bamboo trunnels, pull, broach, and glue in the bamboo.  The pain is dealing with getting the pattern location correct on the loose plank.
 

What are the sources that even suggest that any sort of penetrating oil is commonly used on a ship model?  A few use it.  The approval and suitability for use on a ship model expressed in the way that you wrote this inquiry probably only exists in the minds of the owners and advertising department of the Watco Co.  Watco = Danish Oil = $
Ship models seldom present a large enough flat surface to need or need to show the effects of depth with a clear finish.
Unless your model is and is meant to be a toy, a high gloss finish is a scale inappropriate look.
Most any water clear oil will give give wood a wet look.  Most oils never dry and ruin the surface for any follow on treatment.  Penetrating oils are a special case . As they are exposed to air, they undergo a chemical reaction (you hope) and cross link (polymerize).  They become a clear "hard, maybe" solid.  What they allow to be bonded to their surface is particular and specific to the type of oil used.
 
Now,  to back up a step or two and address your real problem:
This is opinion, not law or rules:
After you sand the deck, give it a light scraping with a sharp single edged razor blade. Vacuum and then wipe with 95% ethanol.
I do not think you really want a deck on a ship model to express sharpness or contrast in the wood grain used.  The goal is to use a wood species with no visible grain.
Apply a coat of shellac - the primer coat (1st coat) is 50:50  shellac: 95% ethanol  (shellac thinner).
Follow with a coat of full strength shellac.  Shellac just dries.  There is no chemical reaction.  The more layers, the more depth effect. ( French polish )
If anything plastic is not against Your rules, a wipe on polyurethane finish seems to be a popular final finish instead of or over the full strength shellac. But unless yours is a toy, not high gloss.

Bob,
No disagreement from me about any sort of Al oxide - open coat.  For the longest time,  I wondered what the difference was between open coat and closed coat.  I was addressing the closed coat Al oxide and Si carbide and Zirconia as being the stuff that could clog.  I think that the longer lasting open coat is about having a cloth or heavier paper backing and a bonding agent that is stronger and more heat from friction resistant.  The teeth part should be about the same.
 
Dave,
Not having a ton of fine saw dust would be a plus,  but at least needing protection from it,  in addition to a shop vac meant that I had some N-95 masks on hand.

What are the sources that even suggest that any sort of penetrating oil is commonly used on a ship model?  A few use it.  The approval and suitability for use on a ship model expressed in the way that you wrote this inquiry probably only exists in the minds of the owners and advertising department of the Watco Co.  Watco = Danish Oil = $
Ship models seldom present a large enough flat surface to need or need to show the effects of depth with a clear finish.
Unless your model is and is meant to be a toy, a high gloss finish is a scale inappropriate look.
Most any water clear oil will give give wood a wet look.  Most oils never dry and ruin the surface for any follow on treatment.  Penetrating oils are a special case . As they are exposed to air, they undergo a chemical reaction (you hope) and cross link (polymerize).  They become a clear "hard, maybe" solid.  What they allow to be bonded to their surface is particular and specific to the type of oil used.
 
Now,  to back up a step or two and address your real problem:
This is opinion, not law or rules:
After you sand the deck, give it a light scraping with a sharp single edged razor blade. Vacuum and then wipe with 95% ethanol.
I do not think you really want a deck on a ship model to express sharpness or contrast in the wood grain used.  The goal is to use a wood species with no visible grain.
Apply a coat of shellac - the primer coat (1st coat) is 50:50  shellac: 95% ethanol  (shellac thinner).
Follow with a coat of full strength shellac.  Shellac just dries.  There is no chemical reaction.  The more layers, the more depth effect. ( French polish )
If anything plastic is not against Your rules, a wipe on polyurethane finish seems to be a popular final finish instead of or over the full strength shellac. But unless yours is a toy, not high gloss.

Dave,
I think the major alternatives are quarter sawn and plane sawn, yes?
The way I read the Gilmer quote:  their stock is quarter sawn, and the wide face is inside a growth ring.  The theoretical and perfect effect would be no grain showing and all one color.  More or less perfect for scale effect.  The narrow face would be busy with grain and it would be parallel lines. 
 
My stock (primarily Hard Maple and Black Cherry) from Yukon Lumber (they are not familiar with Castello) is plane sawn.  The wide face is along the growth rings. With that face on the saw table, what the sawn slices show is across the growth rings.  The stock for frame timbers has grain effect on the surface that is between each frame.  The edge that shows could, in theory, show no grain,  if the frame was a box and not curved.  It is actually catch as catch can,  because the lumber stock is a slice along the length of a cylinder with concentric rings.  With Hard Maple,  what shows on a cut across the  rings face can be plain, flame, tiger, fleck, depending on ring angle and all from the same board. The edge on a single timber can look as though it was two mildly different colored pieces with a curved diagonal scarph.   Were I to choose to be OCD about this part, I figure it would throw me into a fugue state.  I just live with it.
 
With flatsawn,  the face that you choose to lay on the saw table will have a significant and possibly more predictable and uniform effect on what your ultimate display face will look like. 
 
 
 

What are the sources that even suggest that any sort of penetrating oil is commonly used on a ship model?  A few use it.  The approval and suitability for use on a ship model expressed in the way that you wrote this inquiry probably only exists in the minds of the owners and advertising department of the Watco Co.  Watco = Danish Oil = $
Ship models seldom present a large enough flat surface to need or need to show the effects of depth with a clear finish.
Unless your model is and is meant to be a toy, a high gloss finish is a scale inappropriate look.
Most any water clear oil will give give wood a wet look.  Most oils never dry and ruin the surface for any follow on treatment.  Penetrating oils are a special case . As they are exposed to air, they undergo a chemical reaction (you hope) and cross link (polymerize).  They become a clear "hard, maybe" solid.  What they allow to be bonded to their surface is particular and specific to the type of oil used.
 
Now,  to back up a step or two and address your real problem:
This is opinion, not law or rules:
After you sand the deck, give it a light scraping with a sharp single edged razor blade. Vacuum and then wipe with 95% ethanol.
I do not think you really want a deck on a ship model to express sharpness or contrast in the wood grain used.  The goal is to use a wood species with no visible grain.
Apply a coat of shellac - the primer coat (1st coat) is 50:50  shellac: 95% ethanol  (shellac thinner).
Follow with a coat of full strength shellac.  Shellac just dries.  There is no chemical reaction.  The more layers, the more depth effect. ( French polish )
If anything plastic is not against Your rules, a wipe on polyurethane finish seems to be a popular final finish instead of or over the full strength shellac. But unless yours is a toy, not high gloss.

In thinking about the theory of the thing, it could have a real resistance to solar gain if there was a double roof.  Leave the old trusses and plywood (or MDF) sheathing.  Remove the old shingles - because of their weight.  Add riser blocks to determine the gap and add a new roof with new rafters, sheathing and shingles over it.  Active exhaust of the air in the gap would divert the heat.  Of course the additional weight may crush the walls and the whole thing be a quantum singularity for your budget. 
 
If there was sufficient insulation, a free standing ceramic space heater may be enough for most Winter conditions.  Not shirt sleeve, but not ice sickle.  I was going to try one in my garage, but I finished what I needed to do down there on La Renommee before it got cold.  Then my Black Dog got aholdt of my initiative, so I did not need to buy one. 

Hank,
I forgot that you inland Tarheels have it a bit warmer and do not have a giant moving heat sink to soak up some of the heat.  At least those not on the Outer Banks do not.  But they will need webbed feet soon, what with sea level rise.
OK, lets do an unrealistic blue sky mitigation. 
Quick and dirty,  a window unit A/C,  Duke Power will love your additional contribution.  Especially if that box is not insulated.
Thick batts of fiberglass insulation between the roof beams, with paper but but not vapor barrier facing.  Trapping the humidity would rot the roof, but the paper would stop a constant rain of itching and pulmonary silicosis producing particles.
A gabble peak exhaust fan.  Looking at your last photo, the loft is almost belly crawl high.  An intake vent at that peak  - some rain exclusion flaps outside and a way to fit a 2-4" thick Styrofoam  air tight cover over the hole in the Winter.  The other peak has your porch outside it.  Good and bad.  Good in that the fan can be at the peak face of the porch and the fan noise will be less.   Bad in that the peak of the porch will have to be a tunnel.  - a ceiling there.  Greenhouse fans come with louver flaps.   A simple screen covered opening for the main front peak.  A Winter cover there too.  I would hate the winterizing and summerizing maintenance.  
The whole roof can be covered with 4'x8' sheets of 1" foil faced insulation sheets. Just tied down.  Foil face out, so that you can blind aviation with the reflection.
Or  build a "U" shaped structure over the whole building and cover it with a flexible PE reflecting tarp.  This could be large enough to exclude direct morning and especially evening solar gain.
 
Back when Carter was pres,  I built (had built) a house with a two story solar room in central KY.  Summers are just as hot and humid as piedmont Tarheelia  with more tornadoes. Great for tomatoes though.  Being a second generation tech pioneer - lots and lots of things I would have done differently, if...  One of gotcha for that region,  it does not sun all that much in the Winter.  What was great for New Mexico and Arizona, was not exactly the same.
 

Scratch / scrape grooves for the bars on top of the frames and PVA glue a thin veneer layer over them?  A mechanical hold should be enough, but I know that PVA will grip stainless steel pins in a drilled hole with enough of a bond that your bars would not survive the force required to break it.

Kirby,
From 1:96 to 1:192 is reduction to one half in three dimensions.  The volume difference is that  your model will be 1/8 that of one built to the plans.
!:96 is already partially miniature and 1:192 is decidedly a miniature scale.  This will require as much art as it does technical skill, if not more.  You will need to be creative in your choice of materials.
I see this as work on a different plane from most of us.  The production of gems.  I find the prospect daunting.
 
Some resources that you may find offer help or inspiration are:

Building a Miniature Navy Board Model
by Philip Reed
Shipbuilding in Miniature
by Donald McNarry | Apr 1, 1983
SHIPS IN MINIATURE: The Classic Manual for Modelmakers
by Lloyd McCaffery | Mar 1, 2003
 

Scratch / scrape grooves for the bars on top of the frames and PVA glue a thin veneer layer over them?  A mechanical hold should be enough, but I know that PVA will grip stainless steel pins in a drilled hole with enough of a bond that your bars would not survive the force required to break it.

Kirby,
From 1:96 to 1:192 is reduction to one half in three dimensions.  The volume difference is that  your model will be 1/8 that of one built to the plans.
!:96 is already partially miniature and 1:192 is decidedly a miniature scale.  This will require as much art as it does technical skill, if not more.  You will need to be creative in your choice of materials.
I see this as work on a different plane from most of us.  The production of gems.  I find the prospect daunting.
 
Some resources that you may find offer help or inspiration are:

Building a Miniature Navy Board Model
by Philip Reed
Shipbuilding in Miniature
by Donald McNarry | Apr 1, 1983
SHIPS IN MINIATURE: The Classic Manual for Modelmakers
by Lloyd McCaffery | Mar 1, 2003
 

You could go old school and use half concentration shellac, followed by full strength.  For anything wood that is already bonded, shellac would be good for them too.  You can mask with Frog tape ( is it really made in France?) if it worries you.  Application - small brush, a small block cut from a low cost sponge paint brush -- Duco a couple of round tooth picks, or a piece of a bamboo skewer for a handle -  a square of cotton rag held in a curved Kelly clamp  -  for fine attention - a Q-tip? 
 
Since they are removed, you might consider a blackening Tx for the brass.  Search the forums for the topic,  The key to success with this seems to be fresh blackening agent and making sure that the whole surface of the brass is absolutely nothing but brass,  no skin oils or anything else.

Bob,
No disagreement from me about any sort of Al oxide - open coat.  For the longest time,  I wondered what the difference was between open coat and closed coat.  I was addressing the closed coat Al oxide and Si carbide and Zirconia as being the stuff that could clog.  I think that the longer lasting open coat is about having a cloth or heavier paper backing and a bonding agent that is stronger and more heat from friction resistant.  The teeth part should be about the same.
 
Dave,
Not having a ton of fine saw dust would be a plus,  but at least needing protection from it,  in addition to a shop vac meant that I had some N-95 masks on hand.

With blades, I think thickness planner is a better description.
Aspects that I would wonder about:
How much fine control over thickness?
How often must the blades be sharpened?
How difficult is it to get at them?
What is the square surface area processed before the blades need to be replaced?
How expensive are the blades?
Is tear out a significant occurrence?
What is the difference in loss to waste compared to a sander?
 
Compared to a thickness sander, 
I imagine it would go faster. 
Require fewer passes if the layer to be removed is relatively thick. 
The waste product would generally be less micro and airborne.  Something that requires abatement with a sander. 
If you are careless and get fingers in harms way, I would think that the amount of you lost would be more than closely trimmed nails or temporarily more sensitive finger tips.

Two comments:
I buy direct from Klingspor on line.  From my reading, I use open coat Al oxide as the cutting medium.  It seems that the long life materials are for metals and such, wood clogs, fills the spaces.
I wish Jim had used a much stronger spring to restrain the depth wheel.   But it only wants to go one way and it is wide enough that a 2" C clamp on the rim stops it by it hitting the housing.

Paul,
First, if you have not already, check out Hank's thread in this forum  /22426-converting-a-backyard-shed-into-a-model-workshop/.
 
I would use Liquid Nails and fit as much pink or blue Star Phone (E. Ky pronunciation) exterior insulation sheeting as will fit between the 2x4's. 
If you then cover the inside with 4x8 sheets on the 1" white/ foil pressed beads version, it will insulate and brighten the place.  Oh, oh,  mark the centers for every 2x4 on the outside surface as you cover them over.  Stud finders are a royal pain to have to use.
 
A low cost bench =  a long, wide Lauian-type flush face hollow core door, fix a furring strip at the back as a splash guard,  cover the top with a sheet of Formica-type material (this is what contact cement is for. Do not get too much because it is worthless as an adhesive for ship models).  Buy a pair of two drawer economy grade filing cabinets to hold it up.  PVA glue 4 pieces of scrap wood on the underside of door to make a socket for the top of each filing cabinet - keeps everything in place, but can easily be taken apart.   Toss the 4 filing cabinet drawers and fix a shelf where the bottom of each would have been.
Your existing bench is also a candidate for a Formica top.
 
For a dead flat work surface, two pieces of thick safety (museum) glass  12x18 inches - have the glass shop bevel all the edges.
 
For tools,  the economical course is like using a bayonet in a mine field.  Open the kit,  decide what your first step will be,  decide which tools will do the job and only buy those.  Do this for each subsequent step.  This should keep you from sinking a lot of money in buying tools that you will not use - at least until you inevitably contract the tool acquisition virus.
 
 

On masts with fore and aft sails with booms,  The aftermost shrouds?

Until somebody cites a contrary authority, I'd say any shroud which might potentially be subject to chafe by a yard can be expected to be wormed, parceled, and served. These are generally the forward shrouds on each mast, at least as high as the highest yard.