I'm reminded now, too, of the difference in building when I was a kid and today, when I think of the instructions that the major companies included in their kits.  Especially Monogram and Revell.  You learned about the subject, because the instructions weren't just sets of exploded drawings and parts with numbers on the sprues.  They usually included descriptions of the part, eg, "A23 distributor cap", "C24 ignition harness", "D15 CXAM radar antenna", etc, etc.  I learned about the interior of a B-25, or a '57 Chevy, from those instructions.  They were like manuals in that regard.