In my youth I did a lot of Games Workshop modelling, so I have quite a lot of experience with white metal.
It is a lot softer than steel, so knife blades still cut it fairly easily. Clean-up is pretty much the same as plastic- only the mold seams should need any work- most of which can be done with a shrap knife- go lightly over things several times, as if you cut deeply it is hard to control where the blade goes.
Unless you polish it, the surface texture enables it to take paint very well. All Citadel paints are acrylic and have been since the beginning- certainly no need for enamels- I don't think they would adhere any better anyway. Acrylics are also probably less likely to have problems over the lifetime of the model, as they are more stretchy, and any very light knocks will not crack the paint, where as (I guess) enamels are more brittle, and would crack if the props got bent even a tiny bit.
