As it has been said before, "build your model the way YOU like it, if others don't like it, that's okay. Let THEM do it their way." (Or something to that effect... 😉)
Sorry to hear this, was looking forward to your progress. One thing to be said for Tamiya, they do make it hard to build anything else (with few exceptions...).
Welcome, Craig! Every model is just practice for the next one (or so I have heard... 😉). Seriously though, there are so many techniques out there it all depends on what you want/like to build. Just have fun with it!