Clear Coats? Tamiya in particular

[Hawk312]

I`ve noticed that many of you don`t use clear coats on your models and I`m wondering why. Atleast I don`t see it mentioned very often. I notice alot of you use Tamiya sprays and was wondering if it was because you`ve had bad experiences with their clear coat paint. I`ve heard that it is difficult to work with, and can crack the paint if not applied right. Is this true? If you do use Tamiya clear coat, how and when do you apply it? I was considering using it for my 360 Spyder, but am nervous about wrecking it after spending so much time on it. I will be using Tamiya yellow for the color.

[BVC500]

I use enamel clearcoat on all bodies. It protects the color coat from both age and when using a polishing kit.

I have definitely had problems with clear coat, but mainly not due to the paint itself. For instance, i now have to strip to car bodies of their paint because the bottle that the clear coat was in wasn't clean and i got metallic spots on the red finish. It was very noticeable, so i had to strip the cars. I was so close to being finished!!!

Also, clear coat can get old and change the color of the base, color coat

[Guiddy]

Is it worth the risk on a solid colour?

If you use a metalic fair enough, but the Tamiya yellow will polish to a lovely glass finish. Just make sure you put loads on!

I use automotive clear and it has never cracked over auto paint when plastic primer is used.
I will report back when I try it over Tamiya paint!

Don't use enamel clear, far too volatile!!!

[primera man]

I dont like to clear coat...IMO it gives the car a false look.
Spend a good amount of time on the spay painting/compound/polishing and it comes out looking just as good.