What should my theme be.

Obviously you must paint it in the red colour scheme but with absolutely garish gold highlights. Try freehanding on a hamsic if you're truly bold.

As for tools, IIRC Tamiya is pretty good quality but they're not always cheap.

I want to get one of the fancy ones, but I also don't want to spend a lot of money.

I got a zaku2 for like, 8 dollars from the bargin bin, all the previous owner did was (shittily) line it. I want to use it to learn how to paint. What should my theme be

Maybe some bold, distinctly non-army guy colors?

I want to use it to learn how to paint. What should my theme be. Y’all got any recommendations for cheap tools n stuff?

Ok, so the good news with mini painting is that you don't actually need a lot of expensive kit to get good results, and just some common sense and some basic art theory. Especially if you're just starting out, DON'T SPLURGE FOR THE EXPENSIVE STUFF. Like, an airbrush is a lot of time saving goodness but unless you're sure you like the hobby don't go all in.

Things you want the best quality of: plastic clippers. Good plastic clippers really help in assembly, and luckily aren't too expensive.

Special note: Brushes. For me, getting a really really good brush was essential and helped me a lot when I was learning, but I had friends who'd suggest just buying a whole bunch of cheap low quality brushes and just tossing them and moving to the next one when they lost their tips and it became too difficult to paint with. (Added bonus was you could reuse the spoilt brushes for techniques which would quickly destroy a brand new brush like drybrushing.) Which way you want to go is up to your budget- if you're just starting out and don't know if you'll stick with the hobby the expensive set of brushes might not be the way to go.

Things you can get by with cheap knock-offs: Paint, spray paint. You won't go wrong with the official Tamiya stuff, but you can get by with cheaper options from other brands like Vallejo. Look for the stuff historical model painters use. If you really want to stretch your budget you can go to the craft store and try your luck with generic acrylic paints, but you might have to experiment a bit to find stuff that works, usually if it's an acrylic paint it'll work just fine.. Gunpla have a problem where they're made out of large flat smooth plastic surfaces so paint sometimes has trouble sticking to it, so you'll probably need to basecoat your stuff first with some spraypaint.

Absolute godsend must-have budget items: Tamiya markers and Tamiya panel line accent colour. Q-tips. Sandpaper (or nail file).

So the traditional way to hand-paint gunpla is this. He goes over a whole bunch of different techniques and stuff, which I hope is informative and isn't too overwhelming. Although you'll need to substitute base coating with an airbrush with base coating with spray paint, but the method is the same. Imo, feel free to skip steps and experiment- it's more art than science.

I am massively tempted to get a series of Patlabor gunplas and it eats at my every waking second. Someone please rescue me