I'm a longtime miniature painter who has just come into possession of an airbrush, and I'm itching to paint larger models. I've been reading a great deal on the subject and feel I'm ready to try my hand at it.. however there is one subject I'm still left scratching my head over: clear coats.
My situation: I have a model with many tight fitting, moving parts and I want to paint it in enamels. I've had some experience with acrylics, and I feel like they're too thick and will scratch off easily on the moving parts. I would like to cover the model in gloss so I can run paint in the panel grooves without wrecking the finish. While researching ways to protect my paint job I hit upon several different clearcoat types.
Here is where I'm confused... Every FAQ I read on the subject tells me something different in regards to what can and can't be painted over each other. What I first thought was that paints with more aggressive solvents in them couldn't go over weaker paints. So laquer over enamel would be bad right? Except then I read something about acrylic not sticking to an enamel surface... so no acrylic clear on my model either? The only two kinds of clears at my local shop are 'modelmaster acryl clear gloss' and 'testors lacquer clear gloss.'
Looking into it further, I then come upon people who claim the complete opposite, that you can make either coat work on enamels. And still others who had success many times only to have disaster strike out of the blue. It seems like every technique I read about is immediately decried by someone who had bad luck with it.
So my questions are:
1) exactly what can and can't be put over enamels with success?
2) will either of the two clearcoats I found at my shop work on enamels?
I realize there are many errors *I* can make to cause failure, but I would at least like to avoid some kind of chemical fuax pas... any clarification would be greatly appreciated.