Mike,
Sure, but when you are a card model "purist", you have a problem
In the beginning, my first models frames were made out of card board. But the quality was not satisfying me. I like to build a more "sophisticated" hull with tight and straight lines, which I not could achieve with card board, so my frames are made of MDF and the first hull layer is made of balsa wood, the rest of the ship is, of course, card board and paper. The thickness of the MDF is 4mm and of the balsa wood, 1,5mm. The balsa wood is cut in stripes of 5mm wide and glued on the frames and against each other, this way you get a nice, smooth and straight and sturdy hull. When the hull is completely sanded smooth, most of the time priming the hull is not necessary, the hull plates are put on, depending on how long the original hull plates are, they are cut to scale and glued onto the first hull. As I maybe mentioned before I use a kind of Art paper, found in arts & crafts stores, which is full coloured through and through, so no side colouring necessary. But I will paint the whole model anyway, with an on color made Acrylic paint, from a good brand (made by AKZO). This art paper has a nice thickness to build the rest of the ship, such as deck houses, bridges etc.
The way the hull plates are arranged is taken from old books from that time (1900-1930's) and from what I can see on photographs of the ship in question.
I also, always try to build in the in- and outlets of the cooling/feeding water of the Turbines and boilers, which can be found on drawings of the ships. Also th form of these openings differ from ship to ship, but its one picture of such an opening from the ship is enough to figure out the rest, square, oval or round.
The final step is to paint the second layer of paint, grey above water- and a terracotta color for under the waterline. I started this kind of hull build with my ASHIGARA model, and now I have already several MDF hulls ready of several ship, such as ASAMA MARU and KOTETSU.
Hope this helps a bit in your coming projects.
John.