Car Painting

[badger27]

Hi everyone, long time lurker, first time poster. I'm hoping you can help. I'm  relative newby to the hobby, and currently building a marsh models 1/43 ken miles gt40. I've painted the car in zero paints blue, and now looking at adding the decals. Ive seen a few videos where builders just apply decals straight to the paint, others have used clear and polish to bring the paint job and decals up and even sanded the decals flat.

 

My questions are,

-Do I need to lay down a clear coat before and after applying the decals??

-If the decals are raised, do i sand before applying the clear coat,

-What micro mesh grit is best to sand them back?

[Pete in Lincs]

I think your best bet is to wait for @klubman01 to drop by once he sees that his name is on here. He's the best I know of for this sort of stuff.

[klubman01]

12 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I think your best bet is to wait for @klubman01 to drop by once he sees that his name is on here. He's the best I know of for this sort of stuff.

Hi Pete, thanks for your glowing endorsement.  You are very generous in your praise.

Trevor

 

 

12 hours ago, badger27 said:

Hi everyone, long time lurker, first time poster. I'm hoping you can help. I'm  relative newby to the hobby, and currently building a marsh models 1/43 ken miles gt40. I've painted the car in zero paints blue, and now looking at adding the decals. Ive seen a few videos where builders just apply decals straight to the paint, others have used clear and polish to bring the paint job and decals up and even sanded the decals flat.

 

My questions are,

-Do I need to lay down a clear coat before and after applying the decals??

-If the decals are raised, do i sand before applying the clear coat,

-What micro mesh grit is best to sand them back?

Hello badger27, welcome to the forum - always nice to have another 1/43 enthusiast amongst us.  There are quite a few but @Kitkent and @Sabrejet  are two that spring to mind.  I'm sure that they can offer help and advice as well.

 

I will state from the outset that I have no experience of Zero Paints. I work solely with enamels, Humbrol, Revell and Xtracolor.  It's what I'm used to and to change now would involve a phrase about old dogs and new tricks. 

Whichever paint type you use, you do need a gloss finish before applying decals if you are to avoid "silvering" of the decal carrier film.  I recommend using Micro Set when applying the decals.  It "wets" the surface and helps the decal to bed down properly.  Once fully dried, I wash the area to remove any surplus setting agent and then pretty much leave it at that.  As for sanding back decals, I suspect that I would only damage them in the process!  Marsh decals are pretty thin.  Aftermarket decals from the likes of Indycals and Le Mans Decals are even thinner.  I don't apply a top coat of gloss as I believe it makes the model too shiny.  Automotive paints in the sixties and seventies were smooth and gloss but didn't "sparkle" like modern two pack paints. 

 

Here's a Marsh McLaren M6A finished and decalled in the manner described above;

 

If there's anything else you wish to discuss, then I'm more than happy help.

Trevor

 

[cmatthewbacon]

Everything I know about painting cars is here (I do use Zero paints, so there’s a technique for them described in the thread). There are also some notes on decals down the thread.

TL;DR don’t sand your Zero Paints base coat, apply a light coat or two of clear before applying decals, and when they are dry a couple of mist coats and let them go off before applying the final surface finish. If you are using anything other than Zero clear coat, make sure to test with a spare decal that your clear is not going to eat your decal. (Zero clear is decal safe)

best,

M.

[Sabrejet]

I use a variety of paints from acrylic Mr Color to Zero Paints etc. For Mr Color I just put the decals on and then often clear coat with Mr Color gloss or semi-gloss afterwards. That's more to seal the decals than anything else. Zero paints need a gloss coat before applying decals though I'm sure I've seen folks apply decals straight on the paint. However since Zero colours dry to a matt finish I think that's brave.

 

I've never sanded decals and as other have said, most 1/43 kits have delicate decals that don't need it. Some mainstream manufacturers (Tamiya, Hasegawa) feature really thick decals and it might be possible with those. But even in larger scales, the high-end kit decals (Le Mans Miniatures, MFH, Alpha etc) are beautifully thin and wouldn't need it.

 

I do sometimes polish my finished models but you have to be careful: it's easy to go through the paint on sharp edges. Best result I've achieved is on an MM Lola T.70 spider, where (I assume) the flowing lines really enabled it to work well. On that kit I piloshed with Micro Mesh to about 8000 grade and left it at that: it gave a nice 'period' feel to its gloss, but not high-gloss finish. And I think @klubman01 will agree on this - I've no idea why, but I've yet to get a bad paint result on a Marsh Models kit! 

[klubman01]

47 minutes ago, Sabrejet said:

I do sometimes polish my finished models but you have to be careful: it's easy to go through the paint on sharp edges. Best result I've achieved is on an MM Lola T.70 spider, where (I assume) the flowing lines really enabled it to work well. On that kit I piloshed with Micro Mesh to about 8000 grade and left it at that: it gave a nice 'period' feel to its gloss, but not high-gloss finish. And I think @klubman01 will agree on this - I've no idea why, but I've yet to get a bad paint result on a Marsh Models kit! 

Not really thought about it but, on reflection, I too have always had a good finish on Marsh kits.  Maybe it's the type of resin that they use.

Trevor

[bootneck]

3 hours ago, klubman01 said:

Not really thought about it but, on reflection, I too have always had a good finish on Marsh kits.  Maybe it's the type of resin that they use.

Trevor

Was that pun intentional?

 

[klubman01]

3 minutes ago, bootneck said:

Was that pun intentional?

 

No, but it sort of works!

Trevor

[Kitkent]

I’ve never used Zero paints,but I have used Mr Clear over decals,I use spray cans and you do definitely need a good gloss before any decals.Marsh Models and their decals are excellent,I surprised myself by doing the ‘hippie’ Porsche 917 decals of theirs all in one go,perfectly just with a hairdryer! If you need a decal softener ,I now only use the Daco ones,I’ve have tried all the others……Chris.