Thanks
hvacdon !!
The topical method gives you more control of the detail. The layered method leaves a nice even surface, and is the way the props were painted.
For me when I started out I didn't feel good with how some of the colors were looking when I brushed them on. I found a nice Fineline latex masking fluid bottle syringe that let me do masking without a lot of trouble, so I started doing most of the colors layered. The MM Chrome Silver enamel I use is really smooth to brush on, so that was a no-brainer for topical work...plus the silver with all the scratches and details really wouldn't fly with layered method IMO. There are also some transition areas on the cheeks and oddball colors that I do topically...they'd be a big pain to do layered.
Basically if you can get you hands on some old stock floquil and polly scale paint you can do all of it topically...I just don't have a great desire to run all of those down, but I'm told they lay down well (see any of superjedi's work...amazing). The Model Master line is kind of Testors answer to those old paints but they don't really measure up...plus they opted to can a bunch of the railroad colors so I've had to expirement mixing different colors to get what looks right.