Desperately seeking held with natural metal finishes

Hopefully someone out there in forum land can help me. I am at my wits end with regards to this hobby and I have created my own model bone yard because of the following problems. I want to model p-51 mustangs and p-47 thunderbolts but I am having great difficulty with the natural metal finish. I know how difficult they are to apply and have studied numerous articles to figure out how to do this. I need to use acrylics because I am not working under a paint booth and the fumes from alcad paints would be too severe and hazardous. I have been trying for over 3 months to solve this problem and I am totally frustrated. the main problem I am having is with a grainy finish, especially with tamiya paints. my air pressure and thinning ratios are correct. I know that acrylics will dry fast and that is one aspect of the overall problem. I use to use 91% alcohol to cut the paint but now it is 33% to cut down on the amount of alcohol, which will evaporate faster. I am also spraying very close to the model. I am now using retardant and have changed to Vallejo paints with better results, but the problem still exists. I personally believe the problem is with the bare plastic not being smooth enough to enact a flawless finish. This is not due to scratches but a roughness in the plastic that cannot be seen until painted. also I am using flat primers which I believe is adding to the problem because flat paints tend to be rough all by themselves. I am not sanding after the primer is applied. Here are my next steps: 1. buy the Novus polishing liquids (are there comparable products more easily available at an auto parts store?) 2. on one of my bone yard models, prepare the plastic by wet sanding with first 2000 grit and then 4000 grit sandpaper (the sandpaper is easily found at any auto parts store - I have micro mesh pads but they are hard to use around irregular surfaces) 3. after the sanding, apply the polish - inspect for smoothness and a glossy finish - clean off the polish 4. gloss coat with future - this will be a combination of future and sumi black ink to tint the future - the theory here is that any flat primer is going to be gritty - the black gloss created by the future and the ink will serve to create a glossy surface and a color in which to check for seams etc. 5. inspect after 48 hrs - re-sand any seams and if not totally smooth, reapply the polish to the model. Question: will the polish ruin the previously applied even coat of the tinted future? Question: will the cured future stand up to wet sanding without major issues like future removal etc.? 6. after inspection and any additional polishing and additional coats of gloss coat, paint with Vallejo silver acrylic paint 7. gloss coat with untinted future and apply decals Will this work - is there a better way? am I missing something here in my procedures? is there a better overall procedure that I can download from the internet? thank you very much for any assistance in surmounting this modeling problem 2 recent modeling discoveries 1. I recently purchased the paasche talon airbrush. this is the best airbrush I have ever used. I have the one with the .38 tip. the critical parts are robust and it is very easy to clean. additional parts for the unit are cheap and easy to get. It has a trigger adjustment mechanism so that it is very easy to control for applying future etc. 2. Anita's acrylic craft paints - at a hobby lobby on a whim, I bought some of these and they performed great in an airbrush. The craft paint is thick right from the bottle but I cut it with a 33% mixture of water and alcohol cut 50/50 with the paint. it has excellent coverage and just might be comparable with tamiya and Vallejo paints and a 2oz bottle is less than $1.00. it comes in a wide array of colors, although they are not necessarily military, many of the colors can be adapted. for example, the navy blue is an excellent color for Hellcats.