If you already know v4 then there's not much to learn. There are only really three differences:
a) You use a /64 from the subnet your upstream assigns you, instead of a /24 from RFC1918.
b) You don't use NAT.
c) You run an RA daemon on the router instead of a DHCP server.
Firewalling is exactly the same as in v4 -- you block inbound connections and permit outbound connections by default. A firewall without NAT is no different to a firewall with NAT (since NAT only helps with address space exhaustion and contributes nothing to securing the network).
One advantage of v6 is that you don't receive constant probes. Any v4 address will see a steady stream of them, but that's not true on v6. (v6 is so big that randomly scanning addresses in the hopes that they're assigned to something that will respond is unviable.)
You'll get v6 just fine if you spend some time using it on a real network.
a) You use a /64 from the subnet your upstream assigns you, instead of a /24 from RFC1918.
b) You don't use NAT.
c) You run an RA daemon on the router instead of a DHCP server.
Firewalling is exactly the same as in v4 -- you block inbound connections and permit outbound connections by default. A firewall without NAT is no different to a firewall with NAT (since NAT only helps with address space exhaustion and contributes nothing to securing the network).
One advantage of v6 is that you don't receive constant probes. Any v4 address will see a steady stream of them, but that's not true on v6. (v6 is so big that randomly scanning addresses in the hopes that they're assigned to something that will respond is unviable.)
You'll get v6 just fine if you spend some time using it on a real network.