Painting more than one color with smooth finish

[JayT]

I want to paint a guitar kit solid white with some small graphics under the final clear coat. Is there any paint/finish combo I should avoid?

I've never done nitro so if I go that way can I lay down the white, let that dry then hand paint some graphics, let that dry, then nitro clear on top? Not sure if that's too long and the clear coat won't "melt in to" the color coat.

Also will the nitro work with say acrylic  paint under the clear or will that have some problems? I plan to hand brush on the graphics but want the cllear coat surface to be as flat/smooth as possible. Considering getting an airbrush but would rather not if possible.

Going to do some tests first but I always appreciate expert advice (or at least advice from someone with any experience)

[mistermikev]

On 10/1/2020 at 6:11 AM, JayT said:

I want to paint a guitar kit solid white with some small graphics under the final clear coat. Is there any paint/finish combo I should avoid?

I've never done nitro so if I go that way can I lay down the white, let that dry then hand paint some graphics, let that dry, then nitro clear on top? Not sure if that's too long and the clear coat won't "melt in to" the color coat.

Also will the nitro work with say acrylic  paint under the clear or will that have some problems? I plan to hand brush on the graphics but want the cllear coat surface to be as flat/smooth as possible. Considering getting an airbrush but would rather not if possible.

Going to do some tests first but I always appreciate expert advice (or at least advice from someone with any experience)

my advice would be... if you have a printer... get some waterslide... do up some graphics in paint.  light coat of clear and slide it on.  then just bury the decal. 

I don't have specifics on nitro... but I can tell you there are many things it DOES NOT LIKE!  It reacts to everything.  It is an awesome finish tho.

a while back I bought an airbrush off craigslist... works really well for details but I wouldn't recommend it for painting an entire guitar.  rattle cans can do a great finish if you do your prep work well.  also, there is a lot of cool paint at auto parts stores.  metallic, sparkle... and it's a step up from what you might find elsewhere locally.  you can also get 2k gloss at most.