I'd recommend painting as you go. If you already finished a model, lets say a gundam, you're going to have parts with different color near each other right? If you paint then you're going to get paint all over your model, i.e. you're painting the blue chest part and oops you accidentally get some blue on the white parts. Also, you can't paint certain areas like joints etc. when you're figure is complete.

Definitely don't use cheap brushes. The glue they use to stick the bristles to the brush handle on those are horrid, and ends up being disolved by the solvents in your paint, so when you're painting you're going to leave brush bristles all over your model.

Acrylics would usually be water based paint. Washing the piece before the paint dries should remove most of it. I used to keep a toothbrush and actually use toothpaste to scrub away the paint if I botched up a work in progress. Thinner works but then you run the risk of melting the plastic on the model, especially on pieces with minor details or panel lines. I remember once botching up badly on a HG Deathscyth's backpack and chucking the thing into a mixture of water and thinner (I was young and it was the first kit I painted, and I added only around 1:9 thinner!) and ending up with a lump of plastic.

I cheat by getting blue tack from Ace hardware. Its those plasticine like things that you use to hold up posters. Using normal masking tape is ok, tamiya masking tape is really just a rip off imo.

I'm looking for clear resin, the type you use to make water effects in dioramas. Any idea where its available in malaysia, and the price? I need just a little so I hope they don't come in gallons.

>.<