How Do You Paint Plastic Toy Soldiers?

I WAS a teen when I last painted plastic toy soldiers - mainly Airfix, with a few Spencer Smiths.
They were made of soft plastic, as is the case with Armies In Plastic and their ilk - the main thing that has changed is that I will be using acrylic paints rather than oil-based enamels.
Even so, it is as well to refresh knowledge and keep up with the latest techniques, so I surfed the web for advice.
As is often the case on the internet, there were almost as many answers as there were posts, so I may experiment a little to find what works best for me.
I will be starting with the contents of the Armies In Plastic Franco-Prussian "special set," which has 16 green Prussian infantry, 16 blue French Foreign Legion infantry, 20 red zouaves and two grey Krupp guns.

Franco-Prussian War "special set"

I have not decided which rules I will be using for refighting the battles toy-soldier-style, but the leading candidates are those published in the books The Portable Wargame, Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878, Tin Soldiers In Action and Practical Wargaming (the Charlie Wesencraft book from 1974, not the Charles Grant WW2 book from 1970!).
My final rules will probably be an amalgam of all four, plus ideas from other sources - but in any event they will need to suit my current preference for a gridded table-top of 12x10 3in (c75mm) squares.
Bearing in mind that the armies of Neil Thomas - author of Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878 - generally have units consisting of four bases, while infantry in Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame usually have four "strength points," it seems very likely my Franco-Prussian infantry units will consist of four figures (whether such a unit represents a corps, division, brigade or something smaller will depend on the scale of the engagement).
The advantage of this is that the loss of a strength point or base can be reflected by removing a figure.
Similarly I am leaning towards cavalry units of two mounted figures, where each would represent two strength points. Here the loss of one strength point would be shown by a marker - perhaps a coloured rubber band around one of the horsemen.

First up for painting are these four zouaves

I first washed the zouaves in soapy water, rinsed under a (tepid) hot tap and painted with PVA glue, the idea being to give a surface to which primer will adhere.
As with my metal 10mm figures, I used a simple black acrylic primer, painted on with a brush (I do not see the need for a spray can).
Next I painted the bases with Miniature Paints' grass green -  just seeing figures with their bases painted makes me feel as if the job is well under way.
Incidentally, there is no question of me flocking the bases. I always prefer leaving bases as flat and unobtrusive as possible, and that is definitely the right way for a toy-soldier look.
Bearing in mind that Project Kaiser is for toy soldiers, not model soldiers, I am not overly worried about getting uniforms 100% right.
I do not want them to be obviously wrong, but I am completely happy using Blandford's Military Uniforms Of The World In Colour as my main reference for the zouaves.

Blandford's gem … first published in English 1968

The zouave in the book is from the Crimean War, but the regiments' uniforms did not change much over the decades as their distinctive look was part of their mystique.

The Zouave, from the 3rd Zouave Regiment, is top right

Despite my preparations, it proved difficult to get the primer to completely cover the vertical parts of each figure, but bare patches were small enough to be easily coverable with the top coats of paint.

The finished zouaves … you might just be able to spot yellow "false pockets" on the men's tunics, which show them to be 3rd Regiment

By the way, I was quite surprised to find the Blandford book, first published in English in 1968 (I have a 1971 reprint), is available on Amazon for well under a fiver, including postage - very much a bargain.