A couple of general tips.
You can inter-disperse paint coats, washes, and clear coats. Sometimes that can be advantage if you are painting and washing with enamel/thinner based paints and clear coating with acrylic, like Future, because the acrylic can act as a buffer an prevent a wash from tearing up the paint underneath it.
Usually your using a wash to give some depth. Since it will naturally flow into corners and recesses, you usually make it of a darker color than the surface being washed. When I've paint figures such as 1/35 tank crew, I'll paint the flesh areas withe Testor's Flesh Tone Base. I then apply a wash of Testor's Skin Shadow, which will darken everything some what, but also flow more heavily into the recesses, such as between fingers and give a nice shadowing effect.
The main deal with washes is that you have a lot of thinner or mineral spirits and not much paint pigment. After brushing it on, resistin the urge to brush over the same area more than once or twice, because the thinner, will often soften up the underlying paint.