I would have thought model shops would be the place to get paints and acrylics from!

Vallejo model colour Acrylic paint is one of the best has 220 colours comes in a 17ml bottle with eye dropper so just put a small amount on a card to use and you have control on how much you use and cause of the eye dropper stops the paint from drying out in the bottle . Dries to a lovely matt finish with no brush marks .Can get it from most good Model shops or on ebay not expensive either great for balsa or foam bodies.

I make a few floats for mates etc I will give you a tip instead of varnish try using liquid super glue from pound stretcher this gives a rock hard finish or alternatively use hard as nails

Speak to Nick Gilbert. His floats are awesome, I’m not sure if he is on here but he is on Maggotdrowners.

@AnglerPaul_M wrote:

Speak to Nick Gilbert. His floats are awesome, I’m not sure if he is on here but he is on Maggotdrowners.

Nicks floats are very good I’m not sure he’d share his secrets though !

I could tell you then I would have to kill you 😀 😀 😀

What I can say is use a cellulose sanding sealer, then waterproof acrylic like Tamaya then a decent varnish, most model shops will have small pots for a quid or two.