I happened to bump into an ad for that Midwest kit last night. The ad says the hull planking is made of balsa wood. That's bad news.
Balsa is probably the worst material there is for ship modeling. It's ridiculously soft, dents easily (particularly problematic in an operating model), collapses under the pressure of a knife or carving tool, has a ludicrously coarse grain, and soaks up finishing materials like a sponge. For a good many years it was taken for granted as "the" wood used for model building, largely because it was the only one carried by most hobby shops. Fortunately that's changed to a large extent nowadays; the hobby shops (those that survive) are stocking basswood and selling it for just about the same prices.
Balsa has one great virtue: its light weight. For modelers of flying airplanes, that's vital. For ship modelers it's irrelevant.
I haven't seen the kit itself out of the box. Maybe Midwest intends the hull to be covered with fiberglass. If so, I imagine balsa would be a pretty good material for that purpose; the resin would soak in easily, and the fiberglass cloth would overcome the other problems. If that's not the case, though, I would strongly recommend that you consider replacing the balsa parts with either basswood, mahogany, or plywood. (If the latter, be sure to get the kind that's designed for boat building - with non-water-soluble adhesive holding the laminations together.)
I normally wouldn't be so bold as to recommend replacing components of a kit I haven't seen, but that word "balsa" is bound to switch on a red light in the brain of just about any serious ship modeler.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.