Paint your figures all flat black first, this way if you miss a spot or two it will look like shadowing.  Then start with the lighter colors and end with the darker colors for the clothing and skin.  Always use flat colored paints.

I've read lots of advice, howto, intro, and helpful things on the internet about modeling railroads.

But nowhere is there any information for the beginner, [ ... ]

You may have a link on your desktop, a bookmark or favorite for ZCS, maybe you just key in zcentralstation.com into your browsers URL window.  Maybe, [ ... ]