Call to a member function paginate() on array

Could someone please steer me in the right direction:

I am trying to paginate on a query but no matter what I try I get the error message:
Call to a member function paginate() on array:

It works fine if I just use $this->model->paginate();
If i try anything else such as $this->model->find()->paginate() etc I get the error message.

I know the Model is returning an array because I have it set that way but I have set the default to 'object' and also
tried the asObject()-> with no luck. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.