Advise for Hand Painting?

[TMo]

Not sure what you're painting, Amanda. Rolling stock, maybe? Locomotive?

For areas where I want a smooth, consistent layer of paint, I find an airbrush is best, and really, a must have.

However, after that base coat is on, I don't mind picking up the paint brush for detail work, weathering, or painting with washes. When I do, however, it's not normally full-strength paint, it's diluted. I'm always ready to hit what I've painted with a little bit of alcohol (I only use acrylic paints (my preference)) to pull the paint off if I've overdone it. I'm also big on installing a layer of "base coat", which in my case is usually Tamiya X-21 "Flat Base", which I apply liberally and dries to a chalky white. I then rub it down with a hard brush and remove the "white look", which gives and instant "fade" to any painted surface, and as a bonus, the surface is great at accepting other diluted colors.

There are a ton of YouTube videos out there and a lot of them are really great a pointing out techniques that work.