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Hi,

Ive built & painted quite a few cars now. I always clearcoat my cars with Tamiya clear. I like the Tamiya clear as I always end up with a nice finish. For some reason with Pattos decals using Tamiya clear the decals wrinkle. Ive had this happen twice now. Ive used alps, kit decals & cartograph decals & never had a problem. Nothing against Pattos decals, they are great quality.

Pattos suggests in his info he sends with the decals to use Future floor polish to clear coat your car. Ive never used Future before & for some reason I dont like the idea of it.

Anyway can someone suggest a clear spray that I can use with pattos decals. Its just not worth risking another car using pattos & tamiya clear combo.

Thanks for the help

Others have used Tamiya on Patto's decals without issue. Just do a few mist coats before you go for a wet coat.

Having said that, I've not used Patto's decals yet.

Greg,
I have never had a problem using Krylon clear with his decals but I don't know if you get that over there.? As Ember said, try a couple light mists of the Tamiya first or if you can cut off a small piece of the decal that doesn't have print you can you that to test. That is what I normally try to do if I am not sure about a clearcoat.

I have run into the 'hot' clear problem with Pattos decals as well - I have had success with Crystal Clear Gloss Acrylic I bought from Bunnings - I use this to coat my own decals once I have printed them by Inkjet - I have also had success brush painting Pattos decals with tamiya clear from the bottle this seals the decal and seems to protect it so I can then spray with Tamiya clear

When I first got some Pattos decals years ago he recommended that they should be coated with Future before the were cut up and put on the car. That was back when he was still using an Alps printer. I have not bought any Pattos decals since he switched to another type of printer. Since Future is water based it is not likely to attack any sort of decal and it can be used as a barrier coat to protect the decals if you want to use a slovent based clear coat. It has been my experence the Future by itself is not durable enough to keep decals from getting rubbed off.

Hi everyone thanks for the replies. Some good ideas there. The first car I built with Pattos decals was the 70 Javelins I built. I got a tiny amount of wrinkling on some of the larger decals like door numbers. It wasnt much but something I would prefer to avoid. With the Javelin I did a few mist coats on the car with the decals applied with the tamiya clear. Then after 30-60mins I followed with some heavy coats.

So the other day I got a new sheet straight from pattos. I decided to spray a few mist coats with Tamiya clear on the sheet before I applied them to the car. The mist coats were fine about an hour later I decided to spray a heavier coat. The larger decals on the sheet again like the door/roof numbers crinkled. Ill take a pic of the sheet later.

I did some research & Tamiya sprays are a synthetic laquer. Another site said they were acrylic. So Im not exactly sure what formulation they are.

Ive got some Automotive Acrylic clear from Supacheap auto. The brand is K&N I think. I may try that to see how it goes. If not Ill try the Bunnings clear, thanks David.

Ive got a few future models coming up & planning to use pattos decals so I dont want to risk wrinkleing decals on a finished model.

I will warn you that most automotive paints are "hot" and will wrinkle decals. I deal with it all the time no matter who the decal maker is. I just have to do very light coats.

Greg both terms are equally correct when referring to the Tamiya clear. It is an acrylic polymer based clear. As such it can be termed a synthetic (artificial) lacquer. Traditional lacquers used natural resins derived from plant and animal life.

I know Phil Kalbfell swears by the Testors Decal Bonder for sealing decals before application and as a sealing coat on a project before using a 'hot' gloss coat. I've not managed to try it, because it's an aerosol and I'd have to have it couriered to me.

It's the solvents in the gloss coat that cause the problems with the decal carrying film.

I have found that Future by itself is not durable enough to keep decals from getting rubbed off after you put your cars on the track. I once had some Future analyzed and found that it is only about 25% non-volitiles. It takes a few applications to get a thicker coat. Future is water based so it will not attack decals, but ink jet printed decals can get smudged if you brush it on. Many brands of solvent based clear coats will attack decals, so I always give my decals a couple of coats of Future as a barrier before I use those. For a number of years I used an automotive clear coat because those tend to resist chipping, but sometimes I had problems with that attacking the color coat. Solvent based paints always use a mixture of solvents and the paint makers seem to reformulate their products from time to time. It is best to do a test spraying if you are switching to a new can of paint. I have had good luck using Krylon Crystal Clear, however that can chip easily. Recently I switched over to using Testors clear lacquer and I have not had any problems with that.
I like to top everything off with a couple of coats of Future, if that starts to look dingy it is easy to brush on a fresh coat.

Greg I've generally used "Long Life" which is the aussie version of Future. (Just brushing it on in several coats a day or so apart)
But the last couple of builds. I've been using "Plastikote" clear spray.
Which Doesn't seem to be as aggressive as the Tamiya.
I also give my decal sheets a quick spray with the plastikote clear before I start to use them, Usally a thin coat, wait 24hrs and then another thin coat, then 24 hrs and then cut them and use them. I've had problems putting 2 coats on too quickly when the first coat isn't totally set, and as the second coat drys at a different rate to the first it wrinkles.

Having said that, the last car I painted, I didn't even spray the decal sheet first, I just stuck them on and gave it a clear coat of the plastikote and no issues. They were Pattos.

Hi Mopar,

The sovent carrier in Tamiya will solvate whatever plastic Patto is using on his decals. I use Patto decals and they will curl up and die with Tamiya clear coat. I use Long Life floor polish which you can get from Bunnings. Ammonia water based and its fine. I apply the floor polish using a "lint free" rag. Just put a 5 cent piece of polish in the rag and rub on. Try not to go over the same place twice as the polish dries tachy quite quickly. Wait overnight and then buff with a soft cloth. You get a better finish than you would with Tamiya!!

cheers
Dr Fabio

...

I assume it's the size of the polish dot on the rag.

Bruce

A quick update. Im about to lay down some pattos decals on the next project. I brushed a thick coat of future over the whole decal sheet. Then I sprayed the sheet with 4 light coats of Tamiyaover the space of about 3-4 hours. The first 3 coats were dust coats & the 4th ws a bit heavier. So far so good! Ill be spraying the color coat on the car tomorrow afternoon hopefully & apply decals the following day. Then tamiya clearcoat over the whole body. Fingers crossed but I should have a finished outcome in a couple of days.

Quick update. I brush coated the decal sheet in Future. Let dry. The sprayed on 3-4 light dust coats of Tamiya clear. I then applied the decals to the body. I sprayed 4 light coats of tamiya clear over the body with the decals applied. I let dry for a couple of days. The clearcoat looked horrible as it was so thin, so I sprayed a heavy coat of Tamiya clear to the decals. The decals did not like the heavy coat of tamiya & the decals wrinkled. So the Future did not work as a barrier. So this project needs to be stripped again.



My local hobby shop is waiting for Testors decal bonder & testors clear to come in. They are on back order so no idea if/when they will arrive. So I bought some Crystal Clear Acrylic Clear from Bunnings to try as David/Dangermouse suggested. Im hoping I may have some joy with that. Fingers crossed.

Coating my Cars in future will be a last resort. Im hoping to find a spray that will work for me. But for now Im done with Tamiya clear!