Suitcase painting?

[banthetubetop.livejournal.com]

So I was walking down my block with my friends the other day and saw a big pile of junk on the side of the road. It was not garbage night, so I got excited, and saw the big "free" sign by it. It was mostly old hard suitcases, so I took a little blue one and a big red one. I'm going to clean them up and paint them all pretty.

Should I use acrylic paint? Or else, what? I assume afterwards I should spray it with some sort of...something to keep the paint from chipping off, but I'm not entirely sure what (though I'm sure my parents have a plethora of options in their basement...)

The suitcase appears to be plastic. I would take a picture of it, but I'm at my parents' house and I left my cord for my camera at my apartment. But any help would be greatly appreciated and I will of course post pictures when I'm done. Thanks!