You had best take cover because YOU'RE going to start to bubble and peel. And for heavens sake, don't take cover under your car because it's liable to melt around you. Honest, if you've ever had a painted plane start to bubble and peel, you really should not ever paint ANYTHING ever again 'cause you're not doing it right.

Back when Monocote first showed up, the Control Line Precision Aerobatics guys did some very serious comparisons. Heck, EVERYONE did weight comparisons. And paint was lighter and more scuff resistant and had no seams that came loose. And most paints in use then (fuelproof) actually increased the surface stiffness if for no other reason than you usually also covered with either silkspan or silk as well as using paint. And with all that, the total finish weight added would be less than if the model had simply had iron on film.

BTW, one of the most bulletproof ways to finish a model is also extremely light if done right. And almost nobody nowadays thinks it could possibly be light, but if done right is lighter than film. Epoxy paint.

As for your model soaking up 3 or 4 coats of paint.......... You very often sprayed a couple of coats of clear to begin with. And each of those coats weighed almost nothing after they'd dried. And they sealed the wood and the rest of the coats didn't soak into anything, they started to build.

CL stunters would often have 8-10 coats of paint. Eight or ten! And they were probably the lightest and strongest models we've ever produced. My last one was about the size of today's 60's sport models. It was about 600 square inches and weighed 46 ounces ready to fuel. There aren't many 60sized RC planes with a 2.75 pound flying weight. And that sucker has at least 8 coats of paint on it and has flown over 300 full flights and is as slick and shiny as the day I hooked the lines to her the first time.