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The modern idea of education is mostly counter to the classic notion of apprenticeship, but it's interesting how much of the modern world still works on the apprenticeship principle. There are lots of fields that you can get a formal education in and be perfectly competent, but to really understand how to do it right you really need to have worked under someone who knew the ropes. Graduate school is the closest formal analog that I've been involved in. A good graduate school relationship really is like apprentice/master. Ideally, as an apprentice/grad student, you can learn from several good practisioners in your field.
I bought a Cessna 172 model kit on Saturday. I think it would be neat to have around to use as illustration of things about airplanes, and the 172 is a natural choice because I suspect that for a few years it will be my primary cross-country machine.
The instructions for the model brought up this point about apprenticeship. The instructions talk about how to apply the decals, and they tell you what color to paint what detail parts of the plane. The decals are meant to be applied to a gloss paint coat--but no word on how to do this. I guess the manufacturers just assume that if you bought the kit you already know everything there is to know about building models.
So I YIMed my friend who builds modes and gaming miniatures. He gave me the low-down, about primers and paints and whatnot. His advice is to build and then paint, but there are definitely parts in and around the engine compartment that I'll want to paint first (there's a quarter in the photo for scale).
I've gotten pretty bad about posting. I'm going to pick up on something that some bloggers I read did earlier this spring; 30 posts in 30 days. We'll see how that goes, since I'm helping host a conference in a couple of weeks and I'm going to Oshkosh after that.