I like to use Krylon’s “Now” spray cans occasionally. They have good color, dry fast, and have a smooth finish.
I was just painting a project and finished up the last of an old can, which smelled and behaved like enamel as I expected. Then I did a finishing coat a day later with a new can, and noticed it had a familiar sugary-sweet smell instead. It also dried much more quickly (smooth to touch in about 5 minutes - I usually have to wait about 20 before handling gloss colors by the edges). Then when I inspected the model, a small area had crazed and I suddenly remembered what the smell was. Lacquer! The can still classifies it as an enamel paint, but it seems they’ve changed their formula to some sort of laqcuer blend to quicken the drying time!
There’s nothing wrong with the coat when used on its own. If any of you like to use this brand though, make sure you don’t use a pure enamel paint underneath.
Thus far, I’ve limited my use of non-model paint to metal or engineering plastic parts - cheap Walmart flat black to paint steel weights for cars and trucks, or the axles of wheelsets after I add resistors tohide the silver conductive paint - it doesn’t harm the silver paint.
I get the stuff from Ace Hardware. It’s probably exclusive to certain stores, but it’s a decent value for the quality of paint. I normally prefer Scalecoat II, but there are many other cases where the Krylon does a great job, and it dries thin enough to not obscure details.
I’ve won numerous awards for spray painted models of all kinds, and have successfully restored many antique Lionel trains using spray paint. It’s all in what we get used to for tools.
I read once where Krylon formulates its products bent towards not running.
(Remember the old commercials with Johnny Bench, “no runs, no drips, no errors”)
So its pigments are more finely ground and it sprays lighter with a faster drying time.
I think most other hardware store type paints are bent towards quick coverage, since homeowner uses of spray paint can be tedious and time consuming. Not to mention thick for durability.
All other brands stink for models for this reason.