Hey Apollo, just wanted to say thanks for the excellent tutorial. I just painted up my kids trashcan armour (link here) and although I made a ton of mistakes along the way I'm pretty happy with the overall look. I also learned some important lessons:
1: Wait for the paint to dry. 20 minutes isn't long enough.
2: Don't try to reshape the plastic once you've painted it (cracked the shoulder bell paint this way).
3: The wind will blow newspaper onto your freshly sprayed armour parts as soon as you look away. But that's okay because sanding it all down and starting again is so much fun..
4: The same also goes for insects. Mmm, bugs!
5: Wait for the paint to dry!!
6: Weather all the parts in one go so that the acrylic mix is the same colour and consistency.
7: Removing the masking fluid between colour layers and then re-applying fresh fluid to the same areas (plus a little extra) seemed to produce better results than layering paint and masking fluid and trying to rub / peel the fluid off afterwards (like you said, it can be a pain to shift it under several layers of paint).
8: Finally, WAIT FOR THE DAMNED PAINT TO DRY! Fingerprints in tacky paint are baaaad.
So thanks again and I'm actually looking forward to painting the backplate and cod. Making them, not so much. But painting? Yes 
