I would just like to echo the cautions about safety when using this technique. There is double danger if you are painting near an ignition source, such as a pilot light or the gas stove where you heated the paint bath. Some paints use propane as the propellant, and if the can blows near a source of ignition, the results could ruin your day, if not your life.
Nonetheless, the theory is sound - the heat will increase the pressure of the propellant and decrease the viscosity of the paint; both will produce finer paint droplets, which in turn will lead to more even coverage with a thinner coat. There is a natural cooling effect as the propellant is vaporized during spraying, so the warmer the mix before spraying the better. In this sense spray cans could work better than an air brush with heated paint - with the spray can
both the paint and the propellant are hot. In an air brush warm paint is atomized with cold air. I wonder if heating the model (not too much!) with a hair dryer
before painting might also help coverage when the paint droplets hit and begin to coalesce to cover the surface. Too bad nobody puts Future in a spray can!
Heating the paint can makes a lot of scientific sense. I always wondered how people produced as good or better finishes out of cans compared to an air brush. Now I know. As a professional science geek, I am embarrassed that I never thought it through myself. Duhhh. I may go full circle - I used spray cans when I started modeling fifteen years ago, then graduated to an airbrush to mix my own paint, etc. Now I may go back to the spray can.
As an aside to Matthew Usher, I would like to say that I found the finish on the Jag in the December issue
awesome! I even ordered the model for myself - though it's a bit outside my normal range of interests. Whatever Jaguar lacked in quality, it made up in style.