If you're new to modeling.. you won't see much of a difference between V2 and V3.

The answer to most of your questions is,  "yes".  An F-14 fuselage would most likely be a combination of cylinders and boxes; with some extruding and splining. Also, what I remember and like most about FSDS, is the point insertion that alows you build your way along, one ploygon at a time.

There is no specific way to go about it. It's actually kind of personal. It depends on what techniques fit the way you visualize things.

Start small.. build things like accurate chess pieces. Not you idea of a chess piece, but actually take one in hand and make an exact replica. Take digital photos and then clean them up in Phototshop for "3-views" (that'll be great practice itself). Make a pawn, then bishop and by the time you can model the non-symetrical knight, and the detailed crown of the queen, you'll be ready to start teaching yourself how to model an airplane. Start with something much simpler than an F-14, though...

Well what I do, to all my un-constant circular fuselages I'm working with is to find a great drawing/schematic of the aircraft formers. The formers are the details what makes the fuselage from a cutaway. The cutaway is basically taking a slice of a aircraft in the middle and there is your former. When you make a number of these, you can therefore go to loft or spline the many vertex's to make a skeleton, from there skin. -Hope this helps,