Every few months check and refresh your paint supplies.  Whichever paints you use acrylics, enamels, or other solvent-based paint it is a good practice to check up on your paints and to give them a good shaking.  Check your bottled paints, do they need to be refreshed with a dab of water or mineral spirits?  What about your marker\paint pens?  Then you might also want to do a spot check on your glues, putty, clay, stains, and pigments, to make sure they are in usable condition.

I've read lots of advice, howto, intro, and helpful things on the internet about modeling railroads.

But nowhere is there any information for the beginner, [ ... ]

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