When I am reading through higher Set Theory books I am frequently met with statements such as '$V$ is a model of ZFC' or '$L$ is a model of ZFC' where $V$ is the Von Neumann Universe, and $L$ the Constructible Universe. For instance, in Jech's 'Set Theory' pg 176, in order to prove the consistency of the Axiom of Choice with ZFCZF, he constructs $L$ and shows that it modelmodels the ZFCZF axioms plus AC.
However isn't this strictly inaccurate as $V$ and $L$ are proper classes? For instance, by this very method we might as well take it as a $Theorem$ in ZFC that ZFC is consistent since $V$ models ZFC. However this is obviously impossible as ZFC cannot prove its own consistency. I highly doubt that Jech would make a mistake in such classic textbook, so I must be missing something.
How could we, for instance, show Con(ZF) $\implies$ Con(ZF + AC) without invoking the use of proper classes? I imagine, for instance, that we would start with some (set sized) model $M$ of ZFC and apply some sort of 'constructible universe' construction to $M$.
