Acrylic paint and me just don't get on

The future of model making paint is acrylic I'm told. No longer will you have to endure the smell of oil based colourants. There won't be a pot of grubby turpentine substitute on the corner of your workbench, instead a glass of the clearest spring water will suffice for brush cleaning.

OK, so every so often I give them a go. My first expose to the stuff in the 1980's didn't impress me - Tamiya paint that lifted as soon as I tried to weather it - but things have improved since then. I've even used them on some magazine projects because you can get a perfect match for Hornby colours.

Anyway, I am noodling around with a repaint of a Wiking van. Since it is to go into railway colour. Simple enough job. Because I can't be bothered with cleaning up the airbrush after each shade, I think it will be fun to use a brush. After all this isn't a perfect project, just a bit of a laugh. Maybe it might make me change plans for an immanent kit build but probably not.

So I start by painting the yellow plastic body yellow. I'm using a good brush, fresh(ish) paint and a clean surface. It's plastic so I don't bother priming it. Big mistake.

The paint sticks to the surface like trouble to a politician. I don't so much paint it on as smear it in place. 4 coats are required to build up sufficient colour depth.

The grey roof is even worse. Then the blue sides. By the end of the job it looks like the van has been painted by someone with a decorating brush full of tar. This might be a fun project but I've obviously made a mistake. Since the photo was taken, the model has been dunked in stripper and will be re-painted using an airbrush this time. Maybe if I'd started the job with a spray of primer, things would have been different. I bet if I'd used enamel I wouldn't have had a problem.

The future can get stuffed. I'm stockpiling real paint.