That's the way I work but now I tend to do it on a per-part basis. I used to leave the mapping until all the parts were made, partly because I was afraid to do it as I didn't fully understand the process, the result was that I ended up with hundreds of parts that required mapping and it turned into a big chore. For the large parts (fuselage, wings, tail section, control surfaces etc.) I build them all and then map. For the small details I build the part, map it and then animate it if needed and then move onto the the next part.
Here's another tip for when you have multiple, small, identical parts like nuts and bolts, screw heads, hinges and brackets etc. Make a single part and map it before you copy/duplicate the part as many times as you need it as you will only have to map it once and the mapping will be carried forward in the copy process.
