I would be going with the standard 3 coat application (scratch,
brown, finish) if that means anything.

Its not a problem doing the first two coats. I bought sacks of 'ready to
use' stucco at H/D and it went on my concrete block courtyard wall nicely.
Where the problem comes in for a newbie is the texture of the finish coat
and getting it uniform across the wall. I tried to get one of the stucco
finishers that did our home or one of the neighbors' but they couldn't get
excited about such a small job. I waited for 2 months, then finally did it
myself.

R