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This may sound like an odd request, but I'm terrible at painting at the moment(although I love doing it, this is the first time I've actually painted since my high school art teacher belittled me in front of my class by demanding I paint a circle and "stick in the lines!!!" many years ago).. I wish to improve but I don't really have a clue how to. Some of my previous models end up looking very dark, the red looks very black and icky, nothing like I'd assume armour to look.

My current way of painting is simply: Mephiston Red basecoat on a Chaos black primed mini, Crimson shade with a Wazdakka Red over, leaving spaces between recesses to give shading. It looks really strange to me, I'm not really sure.

I can't post pictures at the moment as I lack a camera or a phone without a flash.

Thanks for anyone who replys. I'd like to stick to using Citadel paints if at all possible, only due to the fact that it's easy enough for me to buy when/if I need to.

Sorry not citadel but this is what I do for my Blood Angel Successor Army, I too started off very nervous about painting and still get nervous now.

If you go to the Army Painter website it tells you the same way. http://www.thearmypainter.com/ and look in the downloads bit. I found this an easy way to paint a difficult colour.

Spray with dragon blood red
Do all the detail work, eyes, inbetween armour plates etc
Dip in strong tone, i then leave at least 4 days.
matt spray
I usually highlight, for red I use mepheston red, Evil sunz scarlet, wild rider red (citadel).
Then base.

I can't easily get Army Painter except by post but it lasts an age, it would be worth getting a bottle of dragon red as well as the spray.

Heres an example and I hope I've helped!

Oh.. Wow. Those are some awesome minis!

I assume this Dragon spray is put on as a base coat? After priming? It seems like a simple scheme, but I'm not sure on how much money I'll be able to invest in new paints from the internet any time soon.

the dragon blood spray is the primer as well as the base coat. , just spray it on. As for cost it pays to shop around for these, triple helix wargames or troll trader tend to be good.

This is just the way I do it though, I'm sure if you posted a pic of your problem someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to set you on the right path, there might be a simpler solution than a system change.

I painted these for my lazy friend so he could paint his army.
Simply buy any matte or satin red acrylic paint (krylon) and spray model, no primer needed, then wash entire model in black, then paint over with Blood Red (or equivalent).

If you want an easy method to get them at tabletop standard you could probably use the method ids1984 described. If you do at least this:
-Prime red
-Paint in the details
-Dip them the army painter way
-Varnish them (preferably matt varnish)
You would have some models which look quite good already. If you want to go the extra mile you could try highlighting them for that bit of extra cool

Ok. This is as simple as it gets without dunking it into a bucket of red paint.
You'll get results like the model on the left, not the right. The right was washed in black and painted red.

1. Spray plastic with Dupli Color Vynil & Fabric spray (found at Advanced Auto or Autozone' around $6-8 a can)
2. Wash with red wash to remove shine from spray.
3. Take Micro pen and drawn in the black lines in the armor.
Done

You should be able to do an entire squad in less than an hour, including drying time.

For quick but passable results, I'd second the Army Painter dip recommendation above - red is a color that dips well. Spray with their red primer, basepaint the details, then apply the quickshade. The only thing to watch out for is avoiding big pools of dip on large, flat armor plates (legs are especially troublesome, in my experience). There are all kinds of goofy tricks I've read around the net to help avoid that, and I'm still experimenting myself. At the very least, apply the dip with a brush rather than dunking. Give the mini a quick all-round coating, clean the extra dip off the brush with mineral spirits, dry it off, and then go back with the clean brush and soak up any pools that have collected. (Or use an extra cheap brush or paper towel bits so that you don't have to clean on the fly.)

The dip method won't help you develop real shading and highlighting techniques, but I've not found anything that looks significantly better for rank-and-file troopers (esp. Space Marines) without requiring a great deal more time. The simple basecoat+all-around-wash method is equivalent in time, but when applied well the dip's viscosity creates a shading gradient that looks better than a straight wash. Once you get into washing and then relayering with color, you're getting into "real painting", but then you're talking about a lot more time invested.