F-14 with beginner issues

At first I couldn't figure out why step one, on the front and back seat instrument panels had raised detail and was telling me to paint them black AND put on the decals. I knew that trying to get decals onto raised detail would not work and also, why were the instructions telling me to paint them black and then put on black colored decals? I finally watched a video build and saw that you had a choice to paint the raised detail or get rid of it and use the decals. Instead of doing incredibly small detail painting I chose to file it off and use decals. At the same time I was slopping heaps of Revell unthinned enamel paint that I waited a month to arrive from France, just to follow the directions to the letter and not have to worry about overthinking a paint job or using my imagination. 

Gotta admit, I was seriously proud of myself that I simply made the wings work smoothly in each position. It's kind of what makes this plane awesome, imo. 

OMG I don't even like looking at it. The fuselage halves and intake parts were the worst fit I could imagine and with unresearched fixes, I attempted to do something I had no idea what I was doing 

I stopped at the step where the very small parts of the landing gear were to be put together and had gunked the pieces with slops of paint and they wouldn't fit anymore. I started painting the missiles and did the same thing to them. All the white is paintable caulk. Yeah I know... 

The gashes going up towards the cockpit was a lesson learned in how to properly use an exacto blade and couted my lucky stars it gashed the plane and not my body. I have tried to sand all of the tube cement I used but I think it's there to stay. Also, I think The circle that is plugged white is supposed to be for a small part and not to be filled in. heh when it rains it pours. 

These are the prime examples of, at first, being ignorant as to how to properly paint with enamels and thin them. Honestly, I am so afraid the body of the plane would look absolutely horrible if I attempted to brush paint it with the enamels I have. Instead of using masking tape or a dowel with a clip or popsicle stick with loctite blue fun tak like I do now i was holding these parts in my paint riddled fingers smearing paint and leaving fingerprints. I stopped this build for a bit after being disgusted with the results on these parts and decided to binge a plethora of how to videos on YouTube to hone my skills and get tools and accessories that I felt would help me improve immediately. and they did. sanding materials, good glue, thinners, brushes, palettes, spray cans for priming and possibly base coating. Ever since then I have been practicing different paints and combinations on a spare sprue that has parts that were not to be used in the build.