Scheldeman wrote:
It's also true that my inability to obtain decent results with a soldering iron probably has something to do with the type and quality of the tool. I have a rather crude 10 dollar iron with pointy tip and without power control. So investing in a tool with better control could probably improve results?
It was apparent from the description what you'd used! Deducing how I know this is left as an exercise for the reader!

Seriously, I did exactly the same thing - I was only trying to solder electrical wires to a connector, about the easiest possible soldering job. And I was basically hopeless at soldering. A few months later my boss asked me to make another cable, and I said "nah, I can't solder worth a darn" to which he responded "well get the right tool." A 40- or 75w temperature controlled iron was shortly plugged in and no joke, it seemed like
magic to me! For the small kinds of stuff that we do in ship models, that's all you need. It's about a $50 investment if you buy a new one.
In model railroading, we have to solder to the track all the time. The crossties are usually plastic. It is way, WAY easier to melt the ties with a 15w iron than with a 200w iron! That's because once you touch the rail/wire with the little iron, it sucks all the heat out and distributes it, and the iron has no more to give. But it's still hot enough to melt the plastic. With a suitably sized iron - 200w surely isn't required - touch the joint and the iron will heat the everything and KEEP it hot enough to melt the solder within a second. Then let go - and the ties won't have melted yet. With brass ship parts being much smaller in general (the rail is usually a meter long), you need even less to heat the joint.
Quote:
Also: do I have to apply solder on the tip and wipe it on the flux-treated joint, or is it better to heat the brass with a clean tip and push the solder directly against the joint? I see both methods demonstrated in tutorials so this part is a bit confusing to me.
I do the latter. The former method usually works best when the joint is held mechanically, such as with a third hand or a small vice.