Yes, the Vce will change while the Vbe remains pretty much constant. What's important here, however, is that the O/P add up all the forward voltages, and ensure he has enough supply headroom to make everything fit. Erik's quite right, too, in that it is probably easier to do this without damaging something if he buys and uses packaged "solutions" rather than whittling his own from passives and transistors. If, however, he wants to learn something, the transistors do provide an entertaining way to do it, but require that he do the reading and the arithmetic.

RE