Well, a standard paint type coating will consist of things along the lines of:
A binder - Your polymer which holds the system together and imparts features such as water resistance, flexibility, adhesion etc..
A solvent or carrier - to dissolve the polymer into liquid form (or emulsify in the case of a waterborne)
Fillers and pigments - to impart colour (usually something like TiO2 for a white pigment) and to reduce costs (cheap chalky type fillers to bulk out the paint)
Surfactants - to help disperse the pigment, polymers and fillers. Also to reduce surface tension to help coverage of the substrate (sometimes called leveling agents to remove brush marks - but in essence - surfactants.
Coalescing solvents - to help with film forming and frost protection.
Then any special additives: such as flame retardants, anti graffiti additives, shiny metallic particles, further adhesion promoters or anything else non standard to achieve a specific effect.
Is this the kind of thing your after?? You could try typing "paint formulations" into google to get loads more info.
P.
PS - many differant binders are used with various pros and cons. Acrylics are popular for water resistance. Epoxies are indeed used. Polyureathanes. Various Co-polymers such as ABS etc... Read arround a bit on google and you should find what you are looking for.