I always thought on the real race cars, the decals were merely decals, thus not painted on...
just see the ferrari F1, the marboro, isn't painted on, it's a decal, otherwise they would have to paint it again every weekend...
and also, on real race cars, the decals are not the same shine as the paintwork, they tend to be a little more opaque, so it's not paint...
thus, I thought, but might be wrong, that IRL, they are decals, so they should be decals in modelcarland also... not clear coated, so it would still look like decals...
Olivier
Off course I might be wrong ...