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1. No it’s not really necessary. I don’t sand my kits, I just apply a coat of primer of the pieces for the paint to stick onto the piece.

2. I would say airbrush for all of them because unless you’ve been practicing for a long time or are willing to do many hours of sitting and painting light coats of paints with a hand brush, airbrush will yield the best results. However saying this, detailing fine details are probably best done with a fine hand brush because it will be much easier and less time consuming.
Granted, there are some amazing works completed by handbrushing the entire kit. For example: Kamm has some really great kits and he brushes all of them using the Vallejo Model color range.

3. There are gloss top coats from various manufacturers like Testors, Vallejo and GSI Creos. Be aware that there are acrylic and lacquer topcoats. I’m not sure about an enamel top coat, well at least I haven’t heard of one yet.

4. I would say that more coats will have the best results. This is really the case with non metallic paints as well though. BTW there are different metallic paints from different manufacturers but the ones from Alclad are very popular and same with the Gaia metallics. Tamiya metallics don’t really turn out as well as the latter two.

Also be ware of the three types of paints : Acrylic, Enamel and Lacquer.

Hope this helps you out but there are more experience people here that may say differently so they would probably be a better source. But good luck and all the best

1. Sand where necessary, say to remove a nub mark or a moulding line. Otherwise undercoat as necessary. Some paints can go on straight, some benefit from undercoat and some require undercoat.

2. Airbrush.

3. Future Finish

4. Yes, Alclad metallics need just a single (often light) coat on top of their gloss black primer to work wonderfully. They don’t seem to benefit from more paint and can actually look worse with more.

1. Okay, I’m going to be brief. Yes & no. No you dont need to, you can just wash your parts, to remove residue left over from manufacturing, but, it is a good habit to at least light buff every surface to increase bondingwith your paint\primer.

Far as priming, its dependent. If your changing colors, light over dark, its a must. If its same or darker color, you can skip, but any flaws will show. If priming, sanding should imo be considered a must.

2. Is preference. With alot of patience, hand bush can produce the same quality, though some effects can only be done via air, where fine details or drybrush effects are best/only done by hand. Now paint layers will typically be les with air.

3. Any gloss clear will, like most i suggest future finish, except on areas/parts where friction/ rubbing may occur, those use alaquor.

4. Depends on what your using, some makes yes, some no. Always do a disposable spoon test on new paints to see how they react and how they lookwhen cured.

1.no but it’s a good idea, but do keep in mind that paint, including the primer on joints will increase the friction and too much friction will make parts hard to move and can cause them to break. in other words mask the joints before spraying.

2. I’d say airbrush if you want to paint an entire piece. For details it can really depend. Raised details such as the zeon logo on a Sinanju’s wrists and chest can be done quite well with a handbrush using a technique called drybrushing.

3.any clear gloss finish should get a decent result with Future floor polish being one of the favorites for really high gloss.

4.if you mean just the metallic paint no primer and no sanding, then well you kinda can but the paint is likely to rub off. if you mean after priming you want to only use the metallic then yes you can get the metallic effect but the color won’t be as nice as with a black layer of paint under it. and if you mean you’re willing to do the undercoat but only want to use one layer of the metallic itself then yes I usually only use one coat of the metallic paint and have never felt the result was lacking in any way.

One more note, if by metallic you mean that sparkly effect that metallic paints give you, then you may want to also consider mica/pearl paints those tend to sparkle more than metallic,