So I painted/stained the front and sides this morning and I'm pretty happy with how its turning out so far.
There is some thicker patches of excess paint on the sides from when I painted the back, so once its dry I'll sand the sides back and repaint them.
It's been a learning experience, but it just makes me excited to do my next build.
Here are some photos; the first is the oil paint roughly rubbed on and the second is after adding some medium to thin/even out the finish.