My friend with the 3 armies started Nids as his second, and he's been flying through painting them. After priming, it's primarily alot of washes (really thin paints) and some detail, and they aren't world class, but they look darn good on a game board.
Me, I've got a couple squads painted out of all my models. I spend like 8 hours on a heavy weapons team, so it's not surprising but man am I proud of them! My favorite thing is doing the basing, but I've got IG and I made them heavily covered in mud and miserable looking
There are plenty of youtube guides and the White Dwarf magazine has alot of neat articles. We also will occasionally just hang out and paint, which is a good motivator and entertaining in its own right.