Painting bare kit plastic with a safe clear coat ..?

[disabled modeler]

Hi everyone...

Been trying to figure out what paints of any kind are safe for clear coating over bare plastic with decals..?    I have some that are molded in the right colors that I need to decal and just use a clear coat on them....what is everyone using for that in spray cans..???  About the only thing we can get here is a Lacquer spray paint...general purpose...model paints...automotive spray touch up paints.

[stitchdup]

I use duplicolour clear plastic primer. if it lays down smooth it will polish up to a nice shine and if it doesn't lay smooth a couple coats of duplicolour clear does the job

[StevenGuthmiller]

You should be able to use any of the Testors clear lacquers over it.

 

I know for a fact that it will not damage the plastic, but as I use almost no decals of any kind, I can't tell you with certainty that it is safe to use over your decals.

 

 

 

Steve

[Bills72sj]

I would avoid water based acrylics. While absolutely safe for your decals, I would be concerned about adhesion to super smooth bare plastic. Many decals are clear coated with enamel clear. Clear lacquers that are "hot" may let their solvents reactivate the enamel coating and wrinkle the decals. Clear enamels designed for models would be the first one to try. I would experiment with parts box pieces and decals that are on the sheet but not to be used in your finished product.

[bluestringer]

Revive It floor polish.

[disabled modeler]

22 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

You should be able to use any of the Testors clear lacquers over it.

 

I know for a fact that it will not damage the plastic, but as I use almost no decals of any kind, I can't tell you with certainty that it is safe to use over your decals.

 

 

 

Steve

Thanks  Steve and everyone else....Ill try the model Lacquer clear coat and see what happens.

[espo]

I have two suggestions to consider. #1 would be Tamiya TS-13 Clear spray can. One thing to consider is any molding lines that you have had to sand away in the preparation of the body. Any sanding marks left behind are bound to show if the surface isn't as smooth as the surrounding body surface.  #2 would be to use polishing compounds on the colored plastic and forgo any clear and just apply the decals you wish to use. The draw back to this method maybe that the edge of the decals may be visible after they dry. If you have some spruce left over from your build you could try doing both with some small decal that you're not going to use and see how the finish looks to you. As an example, many years ago building an AMT '40 Ford coupe molded in black plastic I used automotive rubbing compound to smooth out the body clean up and then used a couple of the kit's decals on the body with no clear. Seemed to work well to me anyway.