Paint your figures all flat black first, this way if you miss a spot or two it will look like shadowing.  Then start with the lighter colors and end with the darker colors for the clothing and skin.  Always use flat colored paints.

Here's a pic of the six, so far...

 This is Micro trains Line SD40-2 Santa Fe model which I customized with working ditch lights.

I am a bit timid about certain things, making changes to my layout among them.  I note that my previous blog entry said I painted the layout was in [ ... ]