I recently started the Jeremiah O'Brian. I got the recent FSM after buying the kit but before starting construction. That article starts with painting after the hull is glued together. There are some major issues with gluing the hull/deck assemblies.
The casting is very nice and sharp and delicate. BUT, the hull and deck pieces are VERY thin and do not hold their shape well. I glued strip styrene under the main deck that is attached to the hull top, to provide a shelf for the fore and aft decks.
I wish I had also glued some support for attaching the lower hull to the upper hull. The following does not apply if you are building waterline, but if you are building full hull, I suggest you reinforce a bit before gluing, providing a better edge, to prevent what happened to me.
The problem is that the hull is so thin the edges do not stay aligned. The little groove/rabbet is not sufficient. Even though I used slow drying cement (testors solvent cement) I could not keep things aligned well enough. The result is that the bottom hull is a bit less in width than the upper, leaving a ledge of at least 1/32 inch along most of the seam. The groove/rabbet prevents the assembly from going the OTHER way, but not for the bottom piece moving inward slightly. If I were doing it over, I'd put strips on the hull top to prevent this. As it is, I am using LOTS of putty to get rid of this ledge.
One other thing. The winches are very nice, fine castings in several parts. The casting is fine enough that they are almost like photo-etch. However, the sprues and gates are VERY large right up to these dainty spools and shafts. It is VERY hard to seperate them from the sprue without breaking or bending the shafts. Use one of the fancy sprue cutters but even then be VERY careful- those little shafts bend and break SO easily :-(