Small Scale Military Headquarters

As I've posted elsewhere, I'm just getting into 1:18 (much to my wallet's pain). I've been a modeler off and on all my life -- most recently having spent a few years doing 1:25th styrene car kits and improving my customizing and scratchbuilding skills beyond anything I was able to do when I was a kid. So I feel up to trying some customs and mods on some of the 1:18 pieces I've been acquiring.

The first likely target will be a Unimax Sherman. A threshold question is what the base paint on the existing model is. I'm very familiar with the "LEA" rule and don't want a mess. Is it enamel?

I've been warming up by doing a little work on some figures and have definitely encountered some items that are enamel and some that must be acrylic -- the latter discovered because of the goopy mess resulting from applying enamel to the existing paint.

Any help or tips would be appreciated!

Most of all the 1/18 planes and vehicles are coated with some sort of acrylic. I make this assumption based on the fact that for any custom work I've done any BBI or 21st plane mineral spirits does nothing to remove any paint whereas acetone cleans off any paint on these items.