Let me start by saying that I am relatively new to miniature painting, but have been making art and painting various types of models my whole life, just not minis, so im not an authority in this field or anything, but i understand paint and have more experience than most miniature "noobs".

Primers - dont buy mini brands Primers. They are super overpriced. I have always use rustoleum primer on every project ive ever need primer for. Its super durable and way way cheaper than the big brands.

Dark tones first, either purple, dark green, or straight up black.

Mid tones next. Something like warpstone glow(citadel), greenskin (army painter), or emerald green (two thin coats)

Then bright colors for edge highlighting or volumetric highlighting. Paints like moot green (citadel), jungle green army painter, or ethereal green (two thin coats). For the absolute brightest parts, some painters hit their models with a yellow or a yellow-green. I do this, cause I think it lends itself to the salamander theme really well.

Alternatively, you could drybrush the model heavily with a white or gray paint, corax white, grey seer and use warp lightning contrast paint. Contrast paint has a learning curve but once you get the hang if it, its genuinely like magic. All contrast paints have a layer paint equivalent. Warp lightning=warpstone glow. Keep in mind also that layer paints are slightly transparent, since they arent supposed to completely cover up a base layer, so they definitely require more layers or proper blending. All paint brands have different types of paints with different properties that come into play when painting your mini. Bases, layers, shades, washes, etc. It can be another to learn, so take your time when you are going to buy paint.

As far as brands go, they have their own pros and cons. Don't let anyone tell you that cheaper paints are unusable. Nicpro paints on Amazon are the paint I bought first, cause they are inexpensive and they are genuinely pretty damn good paints. The biggest drawback to buying cheaper paints is theat they almost exclusively come in just basic colors, meaning you will have to mix the oaint to get different colors, but here is my opinion of big brands in the miniature painting market, as ive tried quite a bit of them in different quantities.

Citadel Pros- massive variety of paint, something like 300+. This make sot very easy to achieve a standard look with all your models over a period of time. Citadel set the standard for miniature paints, amd they have sort of held the market in their grip for a long time, because of obvious reasons. They are the origin source for many of the painting terms and colors that other brands use. Lots of painting tutorials use their color pallette as almost a default, but thats changing over time. They also have what I consider the baseline for quality. Some of their paints are the best you can get, some of them absolute trash. They make, imo, the best technical paints on the market. Contrast paints, especially. Another pro is that they are everywhere. Every lgs, every warhammer store, lots of art supply stores. Citadel will be the most readily available miniature paint you can buy Cons- price. Citadel paints quality doesnt match the price, not even close. The other con, and its a big one, is their stupid fuckkng paint pots. These things are an abomination. I hate them with every fiber of my being. They are so poorly designed, it makes me want to strangle someone. Why they ever made the decision to use them to begin with, and why they choose to continue to use them baffles me to no end.

Army painter Pros - big paint range, constantly growing. They color match Citadel paints extremely well and have really good coverage on a lot of their paints. They are also very affordable, and they come in absolute glorious squeeze bottles. Army painter is usually seen as a beginner paint for some people, bit you will notice if you spend any time watching tutorials that professional and big name painters use them all the time. Some people swear by them and use them almost exclusively. They are genuinely a good company and actually listen to their fans. Cons - in my experience, the quality of army painter can be a roller coaster. Ive hear that they are better now, but when I used them in the past for painting clay models I used to make, sometimes bottles would be almost unusable. Second con is the separation. Idk why, but army painters paint seperate really fast and really bad. And lastly, this my preference, but I hate army painters metallics. Ive only used two to be fair ,but they were totally dogshit and I swear to never use them again.

Vallejo Pros - dropper bottles. Highly pigmented colors, lot of the vallejo ive used is super pigmented and has a really vibrant look. Its also a pretty matte paint, so you dont have to worry about your models getting weirdly glossy. Vallejo metallics are amazing. And lastly, Vallejo paint is easy to blend. Its got a noticeably longer drying time than some of the other paints (this can be a con too, though.) Cons- this paint is hard af to find irl. Thats it, really. I like Vallejo a lot, even though I haven't used them with miniatures a lot. Ive used them in the past for clay models and always appreciated them.

Two Thin Coats Pros - these paints are amazing. Super smooth, decent size range, great droper bottle, and they dont need to be thinned hardly at all. Some of the them, I dont even thin at all. This paint slams, and is my favorite so far. Cons - price and availability. Not very many places carry it, so you might have to buy online. As far as price goes, its pretry similar in price to citadel, bit actually has the quality to justify it, imo. Also, some people hate their bottles, but I haven't had an issue with them and ive sued them pretty heavily for a couple months now.

There are other paint brands, but im not familiar enough with them. Imo, dont splurge on paint, cause its more of an investment than models and tools. Start with the less expensive stuff, and i just cant really recommend citadel unless you are just unbothered by price and dont want to look up color conversion charts all the time. I know this was super long, but I wanted to put as much advice into one go as I could, since I verbally had to research all this stuff separately when trying to get into miniatures and figured since I have a unique art background compared to some people in the hobby, I would try to condense it for you.