General newb questions

Many  years ago, my first year in college, I entered the Fisher Body Contest, a prestigeus national contest to scratch build a car of your own design.  Most people, as I did, used wood as the construction material. I had 60 coats of paint and primer on it before I finished.  Now, the fact that I used balsa, rather than basswood or other harder wood, meant that I had to use more primer coats, but even if it had been a harder wood, I am sure I would have used over fifty.  So lots of coats, sanding between coats, is de regier for good paint job.

Some Thoughts: It is best to use the same brand of thinner as the paint, e.g. Model Master paint use Model Master paint thinner. Lacquer dries from the bottom out and enamel dries from the top down so that enamel takes longer to completely dry. Let it dry completely before sanding, masking, and/or handling. The drying time could be a week or so depending upon conditions, e.g. humidity, temperature. Practice with the airbrush and try different media, e.g. enamel, lacquer, latex, acrylic. Generally use paints made for plastic models or coat the plastic with a "barrier" (Testors clear lacquer of Polly S barrier) because some strong lacquers and enamels will attack the plastic and give you an etched surface.

Personal opinion, I may get shot for this... but I never use enamels for large areas such as bodies themselves. Purely because of that - if it goes on just a bit too thick, it never dries. Never had that problem with acrylics and only once with Tamiya rattlecans (with a very old can of the notorius TS36 - and that I still think was more user error than paint).

I built a homemade drying box using particle board, one of those plastic cases we carry models to shows/contests in, a simple light fixture and a 60W light bulb.  Dries the thickest coat in less than a day.  Before that I would often put model in sunlight behind window.  And with an airbrush a normal coat  of enamel only took two to three days without any artificial drying.

I also used auto touch up lacquers, like Dupli-color,  in their rattle cans.  Usually could get a pretty good finish, and it sure dries fast.

I put a 58 Chevy Impala painted in candy gold over gold base in a drying box and used a 100 W bulb thinking it would dry quicker. It dried quick but the roof softened and sank about an 1/8 inch.  *$%^#@(

Use a 60 W bulb and make sure that the car is far enough away so that it does not melt!!!! Note: I lined my drying box with aluminum foil to reflect the heat all around the model. It works OK.

In my drying box the model is in another chamber, with a piece of half inch particle board, with holes in it, between the bulb and the model.  The model or part is in the upper plastic container.

almost a week? that's some slow drying paint. normally auto paint will be 'touch dry' in an hour and completely dry after 24 (and some paints take about 7 days to gas out). You should only need to wait till it's touch dry to sand between coats. I'd would wait a week before starting the final polishing (i use micromark's polishing cloths then Novus polish liquids) after it's fully set.