'Better' is subjective, but here's my thoughts:
- if you want 'easy to work with and good results', try the newer acrylic paints. The gloss colors do look good and can be polished up fairly well.
- if you want the best possible finish, then you're likely into the 'automotive two part paints' that body shops would use. This is nothing to mess around with though because they are very toxic and require fairly special application techniques. Your 'average' modeller probably wouldn't use these types of paints.
- lacquer paints will give a really hard finish that dries quickly. It can be polished to a very high shine, but the lacquer will eat plastic so you need to be careflul in how you apply them (ie. use a good quality primer)
- enamels work well too, but need quite a bit of time to 'cure' before you can polish them (like 2-3 weeks??).
Personally, I use a little bit of everything. I'm not really sure why. My current favorite paints are Humbrol enamels, but I've only used a few different colors and not alot of the gloss colors. I've also read A LOT of positive reviews/comments about the newer acrylic colors. If I was just starting to build up my paint collection, I think I'd focus on the acrylics instead of enamels and lacquers. The quality of the paints are so much better (than they used to be) and the clean-up/hazard is so much nicer than the enamels/lacquers.
Good luck.
Murray