V6 exhaust manifold prep

Prepping some V6 exhaust manifolds for painting - a couple questions:

1) Using wire wheel for surface prep at moment, but considering trying to get them sand/media blasted. Seems like there are mixed results with the various high temp paint options (and don't think ceramic coating is in the budget at the moment) but the surface prep is key and blasting might ensure the best possible results. I don't have a blasting cabinet, but was thinking of getting a small, gravity fed spot blaster gun - do these work okay or should I find a local shop to blast it?

2) Any concerns with the mating surface around the ports? Can this be prepped and painted the same as the entire manifold, or should it be left as bare metal. Not sure if paint on the mating surface would cause any leakage problems.

3) My current mounting plan is to use a fel pro gasket with RTV on both sides. Would it better to just use the RTV and forget the gasket?

thanks all for the input