Paint has a nasty habit of reacting with metal figures, sometimes decades later. Lead-based enamels were particularly prone to this; newer acrylics not so much so. At one time Imrie Risley (mighy not have the spelling correct) made a nice shellac primer, but I haven't heard anything from them for years. However, anything that will provide a barrier between the paint and metal, such as Floquil "barrier", or even Future, should work.
From there, you can select from any of several good quality paint systems. Vallejo acrylics are considered to be the best. Personally, I prefer good old-fashioned Windsor-Newton oil paints.
You do need a primer. Floquil and Games Workshop make good metal figure primers. Tamiya has a clear metal primer as well as their grey surface primers (which still do very well on metal). I'd probably use the Tamiya stuff now over the others.
I use Vallejo acrylics for various reasons. I do paint in oils, but rememebr the oils are translucent, so you have to paint the figure first in acrylics before you apply the oils.
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