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When I first started collecting and painting minis acrylic paints were still a distant dream in the future(I am that old!). Anyway, due to the consistent bad weather here in Scotland we get on a regular basis I can't get outside to undercoat. So I've tried alternatives such as Vallejo's brush on primers. Up to a point, they are okay I suppose, but due to their lack of resilience(despite what it says on the side of the bottle) I certainly won't risk using them on anything other than the odd figure and definitely not on a vehicle. So what other alternatives are available to use indoors?
The obvious answer is enamel.

Now I've got mixed views on the use of enamel.

1) It makes it harder to strip a figure.

2) I'm always concerned about how a top coat of acrylic will react. I've grew up with the belief that enamel and acrylic do not get on with each other. Hell, I even remember John Blanche way back in a White Dwarf article from the 80s saying that acrylic could not adhere to enamel and so you should not paint over enamel with it.
But now I find myself back at the start it seems, pondering the use of enamel!
One of the main reasons I opted for it was because of my Storm Raven. I got the add-on parts from Chapterhouse, and try as I could could not get the shine to remove from the parts. I figured that even with a spray on undercoat the paint would not grip. So I decided to use enamel. As well as an enamel basecoat I did a red-brown coat as well as a red coat. Now I've covered those with Mephiston Red and the coat looks good. This has now left me wondering whether to forget the chaos black spray in favour of humbrol (no 1) primer and their black(33).

The reason for this post is to ask your opinions, any pros and cons you may have. I think I will start using enamel more often but will always I think have this nagging at the back of my mind saying should I be using it?
Thoughts?

If you paint acrylic over enamel the problem isn't immediately noticeable. Over time the acrylic will start flaking off of the enamel.

Typically you want to lay down a good acrylic primer over enamel in order to give the regular acrylic paint something to bond to. I wouldn't have worried about the shine on the add-on parts and instead would have still sprayed a regular acrylic primer on it.

The main con of enamels is the long drying time.

There is a huge range of colours and they can be easily mixed and thinned.

The smell is worse of course.

If you can put up with those drawbacks you won't necessarily need to use acrylics too.

1.) Undercoating has nothing to do with enamel or acrylic paints. Paints just stick better AFAIK.
2.) I prefer acrylics, so I don't have to use strong smelly and toxic chemicals everytime I paint, for thinning and cleaning the brush.