Cary L. Brown said:
You're largely correct in your thinking, I think. I don't believe (and this trailer doesn't SHOW) that the Enterprise was ASSEMBLED on the ground. We see some components, but it seems fairly evident (or at least, it seems evident to ME) that these components aren't attached to each other in their "final positions." In par4ticular, I reference what appears to be the primary hull dorsal... or perhaps one of the nacelle pylons?... being constructed at a distance, and orientation which is completely "wrong" compared to where it SHOULD be, relative to the saucer we can see in that same scene.
I've also become convinced that what I originally believed was the backside of a nacelle is much more likely the top of the secondary hull. I assumed it was a nacelle because I could see no evidence of a dorsal or of a saucer... but the scale, and the visible detailing, is nearly "right" for the secondary hull but totally "wrong" (IMHO) for a nacelle, if you accept that the dorsal hasn't been attached and it's sitting somewhere else other than "right under" the primary hull.
They're building it in chunks, then lifting those chunks into space for final assembly, system-integration, etc.
As for painting the hull... well... the obvious argument is that, since this doesn't really look like the original Enterprise, they needed to do that in order to make sure that the audience would "get it."
However, if, say, the outer surface of the hull is composite... and some laminated construction at that... they may well have ceramic materials and so forth laminated on top of hull metal on those plates. If so, it might well be that the non-metallic portions of the hull plating are best applied in smaller areas. I mean, if we were really talking about just putting paint on top of bare metal, you'd probably be right. But think about the "printing" on the buttons on your cell phone keypad, where there are actually two colors of plastic, one molded right around the other one. Maybe THAT's what they're doing.
I don't have a big problem with what I'm seeing here, except that it's not the original (and thus I'll never be able to "suspend my disbelief" that this is the Enterprise... "I KNOW the Enterprise, I've grown up with the Enterprise, and sir, YOU ARE NO ENTERPRISE!"

)