Tamiya Clear Melted my Decals...Why

Over the weekend I just finished one of the best builds I have ever done, paint and all. It was the tamiya 1/12 renault model. I used all Tamiya paints as well. Because the paint came out so well I only needed to use the pin stripping decals and not the color blocks for the blue details. Anyway to get to the point I figured if I cleared it with TS-13 it would give it an even better shine plue protect my decals. Well, turns out that after I sprayed a light mist coat first, it begain to melt and eat up the pin stripping decals to the point where the red on the cannon decal smeared down the side. I tried to save some of the pinstripping by wiping some of the clear away but that only mad things worse. Is this normal or did I do something wrong. Oh yeah before I forget I did polish with tamiya wax before clearing.What the F#$k is going on :banghead: . Sorry for the language....just alittle pissed that two months of work gone down the drain.

im no expert, but your not supposed to wax a car and then clearcoat it,
you can wax after clearcoating tho
i have never had any problems clearcoating over decals

you will have to strip the car, so i suggest letting it soak in some brake fluid, that will bring you back to bare plastic

Oh yeah before I forget I did polish with tamiya wax before clearing.


not a good idea ! Wax is a sort of oil, and Acrylic Clear won't like that at all.

Learn the hard way, we all did that too :lol:

Overcoating decals with laquer is always a risky proposition. It can be done, but just because it worked once doesn't mean it will work again. The solevents in laquer will attack decal film- its only really a matter of luck if the decal in question is resilient enough to stand up to it. It seems that the bigger a decal is, the more carefully it must me handled, and the more subseptible it is damage form overcoating, setting solutions, or the like.

If you do decide to clearcoat decals, doing it with acrylic clear is a much safer option. But again, do so carefully- slowly, with light mist coats. And don't wax before clearcoating- you're likely to cause adhesion problems when spraying the clear, leaving uneven coating- but this was almost definately not the reason your decals melted.

Sorry to hear of your difficulties- this really is a nasty way to learn! :banghead:

Yes indeed it was a nasty way to learn. It sucks, but I garantee I will never do that again so I did learn. :disappoin Thanks guys for the brief explainations cause it atleast lets me know that others have had this problem before. So basicly I need to clear before applying decals and or wax to a model.

Clear coat over decal can work. Personally, I did that 3 time and everytime it was ok. Maybe lucky

You can put Tamiya clear on decals, but you have to be very careful and put on a couple of mist coats first. In that way you will build up the layers slowly and not expose the decals to the solvent more than a breif moment. After you put on the mist coats you can put on some wet coats without any problems. I myself is using MM metalizer sealer without any hazzle and it dries very quick and polishes out very good to. This one has a Humbrol gloss black finish with tons of MM clear on top.

Niclas
http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=y1rka7&outx=600&oq=0

http://niclasproos.fotopic.net/

Interesting, I will have to try that. This week I will getting the revell ford focus so I will try it on that one. Thanks and cool pic....great shine. That shine is what I am after.

I've had that problem with tamiya clear over decals... *tear*

the problem with me was the heavy 'wet' coat, i should have used more light mist coats.