thank you all for your responses. most appreciated and some things I hadn’t considered. sorry for the delay to respond; work, life, work, more spraying.

I really do miss Testor Model Master enamels. I still have a few dozen colors that are almost 20 years old. most are still good. sad loss… no NATO colors though.

Mr Surfacer primers were both sprayed about 2 days apart allowing each color to cure a bit. I waited about a week before I started the camo. I stopped airbrushing with the green (Tamiya glass bottle) on the turret while I sorted this out.

I’m thinning with Mr Leveler whatnot. it’s been great with Tamiya acrylic paint on other projects. I moved away from using their thinner because Leveler works so well. /shrug. unsure there. would Tamiya lacquer thinner work with Tamiya acrylics?

I think Tankman might be onto something. I may have been too far away and the paint dried in air. In hindsight, I started close with outlines then as filling in pulled back a bit and allowed more paint to flow.

today, I went over the blotches I caused and continued with the sides of the turret and gun working more patiently and closer.

oh and then there is not touching it, rubbing it or anything stupid like that until I seal the paint job down. we’ll see. thank you!

P.s. only the green paint was coming off. the primer adhered.