sand, prime, then paint, or it will probably scratch off. If your worried about water hurting your paint job, from maybe a water change or such, by an outdoor latex paint (it will have alot more ammonia smell) but once dry outdoor latex or acrylic can handle just about any weather, makes a nice candidate for a long lasting, nice looking stand.
use latex paint (odourless) you dont have to worry about so much about ventilation then.
I had my stand all black before, I switched to a much lighter cream color and I like it alot more than I did the black.