1) There is No One right way to do it.
&
2) You can always repaint/refinish it.
It's not always fun or easy to repaint but if ya ain't happy in can be redone.
There are many helpful content contributors on YouTube the share painting and weathering methods. "Uncle Night shift" is one, There's Panzermeister36, Adam Mann, Coldemonspl, Sprue n brews, up to legends in their own mind like Mike Rinaldi.
Night Shift (and others) will usually admit that the way they weather and paint is to spark visual interest. It may or may not be realistic if that is what you are looking for. It takes a lot of practice and time to get it to look right...not overdone and not to bland. I personally like his techniques, but saying that he goes overboard quite often...IMO.
All the guys Mr. Chef mentioned are true artists and I've tried to emulate their techniques. I sometimes think they go too far though with rusting etc. A lot of times the end products look fantastic as far as them demonstrating artistic techniques but also a lot of times the armor looks like it has been in a tank graveyard for 20 or 30 years not a tank that in most cases in WW2 had a front line combat life of a couple of months tops.
Panzermechaniker makes the same point I heard from a modeler who has for decades consistently won national and international contests with armor, ships, cars, and aircraft. And he is not at all one who eschews (Gesundheit) weathering. In fact, he even does a light touch of weathering on model cars.
eschew • \ess-CHOO\ • verb. : to avoid habitually especially on moral or practical grounds.
"Eschew" - Merriam-Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › eschew