hey bowsewr,

welcome to this new hobby,

I did the exact same thing you did when i started out and spent £30 on tamiya paints, which i thought were amazing cos of the brand tamiya... i was wrong.

      for paints i would recommend vallejo or revell aqua colour. i would recommend vallejo for the small details, and revell aqua colours for the big things, Revell is easier to brush and more forgiving, but you can get much better results with vallejo...

        Although if you are going to use enamels, get some humbrol enamels. I haven't used them but heard lots of things about them.

     also, i would recommend watching this video...  How to hand paint Gunpla/Mecha  

  it covers quite a lot of stuff...

    as for primer tamiya fine primer is the best...

and finally, use good quality brushes, you don't need sabel but get a decent one, and get some masters brush cleaner, it really helps. there are tutorials on how to use it on youtube.