Jay Jay, I've bought my Flory washes through Sprue Brothers in the States. My trick for pre shading, and this is just what works for me, is to do a base of my dark shade all over. I then build very slowly my highlights, making sure I have no runs or spiders. Then I make one or two very light, thin mists with my proper color, leave it alone for a day and see if it needs another pass or not. I've always found the paint looks thinner as it sprays on, and dries more opaque. Another trick I've been playing with is adding a bit of gloss coat to the top coat to assist with transparancy, which I suppose might also help with my canopies. That rest time inbetween helps me to judge it better. Just what works for me. Also, building my colors slowly, i'm none too scared to try a bit of post shading where i have to. I'm sure you could try a Google search for Flory.
CML, I'll have to try that food coloring technique next time. I've recently added a Phantom (again with low viz) to the stash, so I'm sure that will give me a chance to try it.
And thanks, Nathan, I also thought none too shabby for a first jab, of course still lots of room for me to improve.