my friend, you got to have an airbrush. it is must-have.

for 1/35, you still can make it by brushing small strokes, but for 1/16, it is not even and look ugly.

i got mine from Ken, the president of Badger airbrush. we met at eastern hobby show, he was there watching the booth. I was there to help MAAD to demonstrate rc tanks. he almost give the air brush and pump for free, it was SOTAR 20-20, it can do fine line like pencil.
he sent another airbrush and full line of badger water based paint. nice stuff. the condition was to send him pictures of my tank later.

again, study reference picture and practise your airbrush.

good luck, tom