Plywood of a quality and size (small, lots of laminations) for what you are doing, is expensive. I'm a firm believer in repurposing things you'll find about. So is Anthony.
Judging from that wonderful band saw, you are up to good woodworking. There's a material, used to make boxes, easy to find in the fruit market. Or shingles.
I recall, Cap'n, that hardwood is a tree that blooms flowers, and softwood is a tree that polinates with cones. Angiosperms versus gymnosperms, or some such. Decidous versus evergreen.
That said, out west here the dominant softwood lumber tree is a devil known as "Douglas Fir". Hard as a rock, prone to curl, makes screws squeal, dulls saw blades.
Our best hardwood is all of the oaks, they being a Mediterranian species. Lovely wood, but not suitable for building models.
No pine is available at all, which is not a problem. A weed of a wood.
Where I live we have a rare Cypress. It will throw pitch from its lumber for decades.
I have a nice little table saw that can make fine wood strips. It's a rum thing though, getting 256 strips each 1/16" square ( 1.5 mm to you Jamie) from a 25mm x 25 mm block takes 4000 cuts plus more for loss. A cut, set-up, takes 2 minutes. Do the math but it is a slow process.
I suggest you draw the hull only until you get her right. No use in thinking about the rig in the sense of any detail.