So here's what happened:
Not bad for my first try at something with more than one color. I have messed around with some stainless tumblers and that's about it.
I went ahead and used a positive stencil (sprayed the white, then applied the stencil, then went over with black) with good results.
Things I learned:
-always strain your paint.. even if it's "just a little" in an airbrush. Got some splatter.
-use an IWATA (or similar) gun for painting large parts. The airbrush can put out a lot of paint with the #3 tip and fan spray, but you can't get the nice even coverage like you can with the recommended gun
-flashed cerakote is not acetone resistant.. not even a little (don't ask)
-try a battleworn finish first. That way people think you meant to screw everything up.
I painted it all with titainum, flashed, painted the white, flashed, painted the red, flashed, masked and sprayed the rifle black. The issue I didn't think of is when you do the battleworn, you uncover the red and white (in retrospect it looks good, but in honesty I just didn't even think about it)
PSA Stealth lower, $220 PSA upper, $70 PSA blackhawk lower build kit, rattlecanned P&S RAS I picked up on the EE on the cheap. Had the CH and grip for a while. So about as inexpensive as you can get and a good candidate for messing around with. Hopefully will encourage a family member who is a RE fan but otherwise has no interest in shooting to come out and shoot.