Don Harstad wrote: : : I always assumed that it would be very unwise to mix them in the bottle. : Well, I would not suggest ever mixing paint in an original bottle. You can purchase empty bottles easily enough, and mix the concoction in the empty bottle. If the concoction fails, you are out a bit of paint, not the entire bottle or more of the original colors. : : there a reason that acrylics cannot be used alongside enamels on the same : model? Or, either over-sprayed with the other when suitable dry? : I have to disclose the fact that I do not like enamel paints, and a big reason why I don't like them is how long they take to dry to the touch, nevermind cure.
Having said that, there is no reason you can't use acrylics and enamels on a model. The caveat is that the proceeding coat has to have cured.
Acrylics cure very quickly, as a rule (sometimes too quickly), lacquers also tend to cure quickly. Enamels - not so much, in my experience. : : I really want to switch to mostly acrylic, but don't know too much about : them. : As mentioned above, acrylics cure quickly - too quickly, in general. The way to solve that problems is to add some retarder to the base color. 10% or so retarder will help a lot when working with acrylics, either airbrushing or paint brushing.
Also, be prepared to accept that what the color is in the bottle is not necessarily the color you will get when dry. Use the company recommended retarder until you have some experience, then you can try alternative retarders on scrap first.
And, when using water-based acrylics, (as opposed to synthetic acrylics), use distilled water as a thinner, not tap water. You never know what the minerals and chemicals in tap water will do do the paint.
Bruce