Building Tucker & Cook by South River Modelworks Pt.1

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I have new project that I am very excited about. It is first larger one since Elijah Roth that I am doing for myself. While working on it I don't follow the instructions much. According to the manual I should build one structure and then move on to another. It is probably right way for someone who is just starting in the hobby. I am starting too but I am a rebel in nature and like doing things my way. I prefer to prepare and paint laser cut wood parts at the same time. Same goes for all windows and resin cast parts. All right, the windows this time is a different story. The instructions call to spray paint them white and then paint turquoise color. If I was to put three coats of turquoise then it probably wouldn't matter but I do one coat. In this case undercoat matters. Usually I use grayish stain on wood and gray auto primer on plastic. The shade is quite close so the difference between plastic parts and wood is very small. Had I used white undercoat for windows and gray for wood the difference would have been quite noticeable. I could have given all wood white undercoat but after some thinking I have decided to take more difficult but better route. I spray painted windows with gray primer and then proceeded to paint them by hand. Should I mention that it is very time consuming process? After doing about 20 windows in about 2 hours I was ready to do something else. I got back few days later and did another batch. I figure I still have about 4 hours to go but I am sure I will have better looking windows. I need to check the level of my sanity though. I may be developing rivetaitis (rivet counter syndrome).
Other place where I deviated from the instructions was resin castings. I cleaned and washed them all at the same time. I didn't want to come back and do the same task two or three times although in smaller proportions. Also I glued together the walls of the brick building. That was also not the way I was supposed to do. I figured that most likely I would end up with the gaps and possibly getting glue where it shouldn't be. Fixing these issues before painting is easy and not so after. I was very glad I made the decision to glue first. I have made 3 attempts to finally get it right. First time I pushed the walls out of square with the clamps. When I attempted to correct it the walls just came apart. I used too much force I guess. Second time I realized that top 3-4 rows of bricks most likely have to come out forward a little compared to corner columns. I had to take everything apart and re-glue. During this ordeal the parts have suffered quite rough handling, some glue has oozed out, I've got some of it on the good side of the walls and I've got some gaps. I prefer working on the flat surface but sometimes convenience has to be sacrificed for a better end result.