Acrylic Paint

Gday all,
For as long as i can remember i have been an avid user of oil based enamel paints, but last week i thought i would give some no primer acrylic a go.
Big mistake.
I am painting bare timber that had some of that Taubmans 3-1 on it as a primer / undercoat.
It seems that i cant seem to get the same "finish" as i used with the enamel stuff and if i look at i can "see" thru the paint.
1 coat of under coat and 2 coats of top should be enough.....shouldnt it??
White onto treated pine on the extension but i will be trying to cover a tan color on the rest of the house.

Do i keep heaping it on, hoping that it will eventually cover ( lotta paint + lotta work) or would I be better off giving it a miss and top coating with enamel instead.
Yep, i know that oil based is harder and slower to work with but in my experience the finish seems to be a bit superior to that of acrylic.
At present i have only done a couple of eaves around the patio but i still have the rest of the house to look for too and i want to ensure that it lasts and looks good.
Whilst on the subject, on gutters and trim etc, oil based or acrylic?
Mucho advice or handy tips gratefully accepted.

Cheers
Steve

Steve

The pros and cons of water based/oil based paints are a contentious issue. I have not had a satisfactory result with water based paint yet, but Leanne (SWMBO) will only buy water based paint.

We recently repainted some doors that had originally been varnised. Virtually all the varnish had peeled off and they were in a disgusting state. The original ironbark beneath had thoroughly silvered. After rubbing back to bare wood, they were primed, undercoated and topcoated. After two to three topcoats we decide the shade was not what we were looking for and we used another three coats a few shades different.

It still has not covered properly!

A long time ago, a colleague in a research department said they had tested water based and oil based paints. Apparantly at that time (in the '80s) water based gradually degraded, while oil based hung on well and then degraded rapidly, but they both lasted about the same length of time.

Modern develpoments may have changed this. For me, I would go with oil based paint every time even though clean up is more difficult and more costly.

There was a recent thread on this forum regarding disposal of used turps. It also gave some insight as to how people cleaned their brushes. It is worth doing a search(try "turps" or "turps disposal").

Regards
Paul

Are you sure it's not tanins leaching through? I know you've used a 3 in 1 primer/sealer/undercoat which should lock the stain, but I've had failures with cheaper 3 in 1 before. I've never had a problem with acrylic coverage if the priming was good. I just completed a job yesterday painting a stairwell with dark stained vertical timber panelling. One primer coat and two topcoats covered it perfectly. I only use Zinsser primers. The water-based bullseye primer or the BIN alcohol/shellac primer for where I need maximum adhesion eg painting over gloss / doors etc.

Cheers
Michael