Ok! This evening I got the main color on the roof, using a new technique I learned from Tamyia's paint thinning page. They say you can thin the acrylics range using their own lacquer thinner, thereby changes it's properties, making it faster drying and a tougher finish.

After my success with the Alclad primer I thought I'd try this and low and behold the results were amazing.

My usual thinning ratio is 1:1 color and acrylic thinner - and I applied the same rules with the roof but it came out way to thin. For the car hood I changed it to 2:1 color and lacquer thinner and that consistency was much better.

This obviously goes against the idea of using acrylics in place of more harmful lacquers, but the finish I'm getting (at least this for this build) outweighs the negatives. I'm also lucky to have good air extraction in my spray booth and a face mask.

Primed the full car body as well this evening but didn't have as good results as the previous evening. The finish was a little 'grittier', but a bit of buffing I've found is taking off the edge. Not sure why this is happening though.