Eric,
No problem. Its not really a noob question. Component arrays are difficult because there is not much information (or documentation) on using them. I had to talk to @Patrik Ekenberg in Sweden to originally figure out what you can and can’t do. Maybe I’ll put together a post on uses of component arrays in models. I worked with Patrik to do this post on simulating an array of pendulums . or Maybe we can even get Patrik to put a tutorial up on creating arrays like this and setting values from Mathematica! 
Regards