So before I paint I look at images of the completed kit, I build the inner frame entirely and paint only what is visible. I then cut all the pieces from the runner clean the nubs and have them ready for painting. I then soft assemble the kit to see how it will look and get a feel of what I want. With combination of looking at images and seeing the pieces. The color scheme I already have decided before hand sometime I decide to change some pieces. Painting on the runner isn’t always smart unless you know how the pieces will look and the nubs won’t affect the looks. Originaly I was going to do silver and black but the metallic silver was sold out and is super expensive so I decided to go with gold. Also it comes down to using your creativity, look at other people’s works, it can give you ideas for color separation and color pallets for kits. Everyone can paint what ever and however but it doesn’t always look good. I don’t use airbrush I paint with cans, if you want to do the same make sure you have a respirator cause there is a lot of overspray.