Glad you're getting rolling. You've got the right idea. Stick the point totals low and keep hammering it out, learning from your mistakes and doing your best not to repeat them!
Headless, schmedless, when you're testing things out there's no need to be in a huge hurry to paint

. I'll make a suggestion, I learned the hard way. When you decide to paint a force. Paint all of it.

I went back to get out my wood elves to paint again and realized I'd far surpassed my previous painting ability and decided to start over. Good news it was only 7 models I have to redo.