Avante Build - Tips for Painting and Stickers

[goncalop 9]

Hello everyone,

 

I've recently got an Avante rere and my idea is to paint it like the box art car.

I'm still fairly recent to the hobby (although I've been DIY'ing things for a while now) and although I'm not too worried about the building, I'm trying to find as much information as I can about the painting of the bodyshell since that is what worries me the most.

My goal is to make this car a shelf queen (with the ocasional driving on smooth surfaces) so I want to make it look as good as I possibly can.

 

I found this channel online where he builds and paints the Avante with incredible skill and I loved the result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXdh3atjIN4

 

My goal is to make something similar: for that intent, I found MCI Racing and I ordered some reverse decals to apply from the inside of the body.

 

My main question is about painting and painting techniques/stickers:

On the video we can see him applying a clear coat on top of the stickers before proceeding with the main paint application (to prevent paint bleed I guess). I've searched online for Lexan clear coating but couldn't find anything special. The paint he uses has been discontinued.

Tamiya has some clear coatings for Lexan but they're either Pearl of Matte and, while I'm sure I don't want the Matte finish, I don't know about the Pearl effect with the Mettalic blue next...

Also, I talked with Nathaneal (from MCI Racing) and he told be that I cold just apply the stickers and paint on top, it should be fine.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of application? Any tips you can give me?

 

Thank you very much for your attention, and sorry for long post!

[87lc2 2662]

I've never bothered to apply decals inside of a lexan body, but I can imagine it would look much nicer.  To answer one of your questions, go ahead and use the Tamiya PS Matte Clear over the decals then apply your paint.  Even though tjhe clear is matte it will show up gloss through the lexan.  That's the great thing about painting a lexan body, paint always looks nice and glossy no matter what is used.  Most of the Tamiya PS paints are not really glossy, its seeing them through the lexan that makes them look so.  Good luck!

[goncalop 9]

Thank you for the suggestion @87lc2! When I get the paint cans, I'll order the PS Matte Clear and do some testing before I proceed with the full body painting. Thank you very much for the suggestion! 

[87lc2 2662]

No problem, happy to help.  Always good to do a test, I test every paint job on scrap lexan before I paint the body just to make sure colors/coats are coming out like I want them to.