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My Avatar arrived from ebay with a black undercoat, which I thought was fine and I'd try and blend reds/oranges/yellows on edges of armour plates and leave the very centres black.

I haven't found a good tutorial for painting the GW Avatar, only some really nice FW versions. The models are quite different though, with a lot less texture on the GW model and more flat plates.

Would you paint it in the same way as the FW model tutorials;
Undercoat white, then layer up with yellow, then orange, red, then charadon granite.

The charadon granite got drybrushed over the top of the abs etc, as they are textured like lava on that model, but GW model is not textured, so not sure if same technique would work.

I am an awful painter, but trying to improve, any help appreciated

I'd say the undercoat depends on the general look you intend. If you want the yellow parts to be really bright then white is the way to go and you'd have to start with yellow.

Personally I did it with black primer and started with dark red, working my way up to yellow/white. This looks a bit darker, but fits to the general look of my Ulthwé army.