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So this might seem like I haven't done any reading or research on painting. I have...I'm just still having some trouble I started painting my Tau and my Tyranids a short while ago and there are a few problems with each army.

With my Tau, I'm using a coloured primer (Army Painter Spray Paint) as a basecoat for the vehicles and infantry. Problem #1. While priming my models, I tend to either miss smaller areas or put on too much primer. With a Fire Warrior, for example, I can never get primer under his crotch or between his gun and his chest. If I try, I end up covering up details and the paint pools in crevices. I follow all the instructions on the can, but this still happens.

Problem #2. With both armies, I find it extremely difficult to paint hard-to-reach (a Fire Warrior's arms behind his gun) or small areas (the "fingers" on a Gargoyle's wing). When I try, I almost always get a small amount of paint on a wrong part of the model.

Problem #3. I'm not sure how long it should take to paint a model, but I must be doing something wrong. I'm just going for a halfway decent paintjob...and I gave up before I finished my first gargoyle. I painted one gargoyle for about an hour and it's still only 75% finished. I'm not sure if I'm using the wrong type of paint or what...

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. If I can provide any more information to help, please ask. Thanks in advance!

1 and 2 are easy enough to answer
pins and sub-assemblys

Pinning,
firstly drill a hole through the feet of the model up into the lower leg, superglue a long paper clip in this, and push into a cork from a bottle of wine or something then you dont have the base getting in the way wilst you spray and paint,

Sub-assemblys,
basicly, only glue certen bits together IE:
legs head and torso in one bit
and arms and guns in another,
after painting you can glue them together easy enough

Siphen wrote:
Problem #1. While priming my models, I tend to either miss smaller areas or put on too much primer. With a Fire Warrior, for example, I can never get primer under his crotch or between his gun and his chest. If I try, I end up covering up details and the paint pools in crevices.

A lot of people, myself included, will assemble (and prime) in parts. Base, legs, chest, head (and whatever small pieces are on them) in one go, weapon and arms separately. I glue arms and weapons to a piece of sprue and prime that. To help with priming figures you can bluetac or glue/tape the bottom of the base onto a piece of sprue/stick so that you're not hampered from spraying vertically.

Also, it's not crucial to get 100% coverage with primer, even if it looks like a light coat where you can still see some plastic/metal shine through that's fine, much better than putting it on too thick at least. Just paint over it with your base colour once you start painting.

Problem #2. With both armies, I find it extremely difficult to paint hard-to-reach (a Fire Warrior's arms behind his gun) or small areas (the "fingers" on a Gargoyle's wing). When I try, I almost always get a small amount of paint on a wrong part of the model.

See above. Also getting thinner brushes helps. Brush control and patience will come in due time.

Problem #3. I'm not sure how long it should take to paint a model, but I must be doing something wrong. I'm just going for a halfway decent paintjob...and I gave up before I finished my first gargoyle. I painted one gargoyle for about an hour and it's still only 75% finished. I'm not sure if I'm using the wrong type of paint or what...

It takes as long as it takes, there's no "should". It's entirely individual depending on the model, techniques, skill, energy/stamina. Some paint quickly some slow, some do batches or "assembly line" type of painting, others work on a single figure. If you do a search on the forum there's plenty of threads discussing how long people spend painting.

#1. As far as pooling goes, make sure you are holding the can a good distance away, shaking the can thoroughly, and only doing short bursts. For priming, I like to take a long piece of flat wood and roll up pieces of duct tape to make it double-sided. Place strips of the tape every few inches and stick the models to them. This way you can angle the piece of wood however you like with one hand while you spray with the other. The models are so light-weight that you can even hold them upside down to get the hard to reach places.

#2 I tend to do the torso+head separately from the arms depending on which model it is. For instance, if the model is holding a gun infront of his chest (Firewarriors) I will paint the torso and head, glue on the arms, and then paint the arms. Many people don't bother since a lot of those areas will be covered anyways.

#3. I probably spend at least 2 or 3 hours per model depending on what it is and my stuff isn't professional grade but just average or slightly above I'd say. Some of the awesome showpiece models you see in the galleries probably take someone days or weeks. Painting a model well in under an hour can be somewhat difficult even for veteran painters. Some tips for speeding up the process would be 1. Use washes instead of highlighting. Doesn't look as good but is much faster. 2. Paint models assembly-line style. Do 5 at a time and paint all the skin, all the weapons, etc. etc. 3. Cut back on some of the details.

Siphen wrote:
Problem #2. With both armies, I find it extremely difficult to paint hard-to-reach (a Fire Warrior's arms behind his gun) or small areas (the "fingers" on a Gargoyle's wing). When I try, I almost always get a small amount of paint on a wrong part of the model.

I think the spraying part has been covered well enough at the moment. Regarding getting a bit of paint "outside the lines", it's not really that big of a deal. Just touch up on the base colour (so the wing colour, in the Gargoyle example), it should be easier to get a smooth edge on the larger section. One of the good things about acrylic paints is that they are not transparent, so you can fix mistakes relatively easily.

Problem #3. I'm not sure how long it should take to paint a model, but I must be doing something wrong. I'm just going for a halfway decent paintjob...and I gave up before I finished my first gargoyle. I painted one gargoyle for about an hour and it's still only 75% finished. I'm not sure if I'm using the wrong type of paint or what...

What kind of paints are you using, out of interest? Others are correct in that it takes people varying amounts of time to paint their models. I am quite slow, the last time I sat down to paint a model, it was a year before she was finished. (on and off, obviously!) But that's an extreme example. You'll get faster as you get used to painting your army, the way the paint works and better brush-control. For horde armies like the Tyranids, batch-painting is probably the way forward for you.

Regarding issue #3, I paint about 1 model per 1.5 hours at a tabletop level, using washes, no highlighting. That time goes up painting with more detail and if highlighitng, but goes doWn while painting multiple models in an assembly line. I can paint a 10 man tactical squad in 8 hours if I paint them in an asembly line, for example. Your time isn't bad, and as was already said, it just takes as long as it takes.

I also play tau so I know the feels.

Since you’re using Army Painter you can pick up there color matched paints and fill in areas that you missed.

The pooling can be addressed by fixing your spray distance or speed going across the model.

I usually assemble legs torso, head + antenna, and backpack and left arm. Lets you get all details while having most everything built.

Thanks to everyone for all their help!

Unfortunately, all of my models are already assembled so the spray paint might still be a problem. My only concern with leaving unprimed/blank spots on the model is having it look completely different.
For the Tau, the primer is also my basecoat, so any unprimed bits are just grey plastic. Even with the Nids, painting over white vs painting over grey looks very different to me.

I'm not as worried about "painting outside the lines". I assume that will just get better with time.

As for the speed of my painting, 1-2 hours per model might be normal, but I believed I was using a "fast and easy" paintjob. I was testing out a paintjob used by Steelmage99 in this thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/404252.page (top picture). Just two main colors (Flash Gitz Yellow, Ushabti Bone) and some washes (Agrax Earthshade, Reikland Fleshshade). It took me 30+ minutes just to cover a Termagant's body with the Flash Gitz Yellow.
I've seen video tutorials of people painting entire gants (including highlighting and using more colors) in 20-25 minutes.

Obviously, I'm not trying to be a pro speed painter...but I'd like to have a semi-painted army without literally 400+ hours of work.

Once again, thanks for all the suggestions!

2 hours per mediocore hormagant here, I feel your pain.

with the army painter spray paints, you will notice that there is a standard paint of exactly the same colour. The general tip i can offer is to give your models multiple light coats of the spray, to get an even finish, and if you miss any parts, apply it with a brush.

When it comes to hard to reach areas, what you will probably find is they are not visible when the miniature is on the board, so for your basic troopers, it can be a timesaver to simply leave them as they are.

When it comes to character models, obviously you will want to get as good a finish as possible, so sub assemblies is recomended.

For small details, like fingers, drybrushing the part lightly is often a good move, but also bear in mind, you can touch up any mistakes you make at a later point

Army Painter spray primer is different from other brands. Indeed, each brand of spraypaint can will act differently due to the composition of the materials inside and the design of the spray nozzle, but Army Painters are REALLY different.

Other spray paints will tell you to hold it far away, at no closer than 30 cm or something like that. If you read Army Painter, notice it says to hold NO FURTHER than 20 cm!

Army Painter is very unique in that it is extremely fast drying and the nozzle puts out a very high volume of paint very quickly. What this means is you got to get up real close, like around 4-6 inches, and at that range it's very easy to drown your model. So what you do is make short puff passes, about 2 puffs per side of the model for the front, sides, and back. Then a few minutes later when it's dry, do quick puff from the bottom and the top. Don't worry about overspraying too much, because even if it looks a bit drippy Army Painter primer shrinks as it dries so it will look perfect. I had to overspray REALLY bad to begin to lose details, and even then I could make out the individual feathers of my Space Marine's aquila. They just weren't as steep as they would have been had I sprayed less.

Also, as long as you achieve complete coverage with your base color, you won't really be able to tell the difference unless you used black primer. Army Painter offers dropper bottles of paint that match their colored primer for touch ups or just general use.