I am a planner. I also have a lot of experience in actually planning for all kinds of things. Mostly theatre or workshops of contests.
Each time I research the heck out of options before deciding. So by the time I paint something I already know of all the products at my disposal and will have already eliminated anything that really will not work. And I usually will not talk about the things that haven’t worked for me because while making stuff I set those things aside until I have time to brute force the theory to find out why it didn’t work.
For example. I knew the properties of Styrene, Forex (Sintra) and PVC pipe before usung any and all of them in my Shae Vizla armour. I also knew the the Forex and pipe would be able to be welded together ad pipe cement is essentially a solvent with a little viscosity added to make it easier to use, but that it essentially chemically broke bonds on the surface of the plastic and each was made from PVC.. so easy!
And then I knew the different pieces had different densities so I knew to do as much sanding as I could on each element first so that I didn’t accidentally swipe a chunk out of the softer Forex rather than the pipe.
I also knew Forex would get so soft with heat that it would almost drip and also scorch, so I knew it would be ideal for curved details and in thinner pieces best to keep far away from the heat gun.
So then after all that I know what I needed from my paint, and that just easily lead to Acylic rattle.
I also knew I didn’t want a flat silver so I used a black gloss but sprayed at a distance just so, to get the finest surface pebbling possible. So this allowed the silver Rub n Buff to hold but not get too glossy. And look more like an unpolished metal.
And to be honest, I actually worked backwards from the effect I wanted back through all the options to find a single path. Not that easy, but I plan.
More recently I’ve been experimenting with the options I have ruled out over the past and am finding all those little elements that I knew would be toruble, and so I may be able to work out a few “these are not my favourite things but they work if you plan for this this and this in advance.”