How much paint?

Zeus is my dog. wrote:

I've never used it before, will it show a glossy finish?

Either go the Tamiya flat base mode that was mentioned or follow up with a dullcoat at the end...

Absolutely! Thin to the consistancy of 2% milk with either the Tamiya thinner, isopropyl or denatured alcohol and have at 'er! Clean up is a breeze with Windex Blue or another window cleaner with ammonia, follow up with a rinse of distilled water and you're done.

Yep I am using Tamiya paint.  Is this something I can still shoot with an airbrush?

Yes, it will. However, you can make a dullcoat out of it too. I assume you're using Tamiya colors. SO, go to the paint rack and grab a bottle of the flat base, X-21. Then mix it in future. a 4:1 Future:flat ratio give you pretty flat. You can play with the ratio to get the desired flatness. Good luck, hope this helped!

In my opinion, yes you should have primed it.  I use acrylics almost exclusively but they do have some drawbacks.  One of them is that they do not adhere to bare plastic as well as enamel or laquer, again in my opinion.  Masking tape can pull it up relatively easily, and as you found out it will scratch easily.  A thin coat of enamel or laquer primer will dramatically increase the adhesion of acrylics.

I've never used it before, will it show a glossy finish?

Protect it with a coat of future.