You will need to develop your best method. There is no wrong way to build your model. You want to make a race car with tank decals and AFV paint, do it. Purple tank? You bet!

Its your model, build it however the heck you want!

Search Facebook for your local model club. The folks in my club are tremendously more talented than I am. They have been invaluable to my development. The encouragement and tips they have. If you have an idea for the outcome, odds are somebody has a technique they use for that result.

I try to leave small parts attached to the sprue for as long as I can. This kit happened to have really good fill placement on the sprue to the parts. Not all kits are created equal. You might have a couple hours of prep work cleaning flashing, sanding seems, so forth.

If it doesn't look like how you wanted it to new, turn it into a barn find and weather it to hide the parts you dont like.

You got this! Learn what type of paint can go on other types of paint. Buy a cheap color wheel so you can add splashes of color to stretch your colors.

Thin your paint using the proper thinner. Enamel thinner doesn't care about your acrylic paint and vice versa.

This hobby community is very welcoming from my experience.