If you paint over paint without stripping the previous coat, what will happen?
Just speaking from experience, the outline of the lettering underneath the new coat will show as well as lines between paint colors. Another downside to that is the undercoat can “tint” lighter colors as it might show through. Overall I wouldnt think you would be very happy with the results. Ive only painted over factory paint a few times and have never been happy with the results. It may be tedious and time consuming work at times but I very much enjoy the process of stripping down a model and starting from scratch, the finished model is very rewarding.
Don
depending on the original color and the color you are using , you probably see the original color… also if there are decals on the original car , you will see the outline of them… also because of paint build up , you will start to lose details that are molded on… what you might do is use something like simple green to remove the lettering etc… then prime it and paint. the worse that can happen is you will not be happy with it and have to strip new the paint , and if you use the simple green soon after painting it will come off quite easy…
The thicker the paint gets, the more you will blur the details like rivets. Another issue you can run into is putting lacquer paint over enamel paint and lifting the edges or curdling the paint. Also remember that the texture of the underlying coat of paint will not get any better with more paint over top. It will only add the texture from the second coat to the first, and dealing in such small scale items can make those bumps look bigger than rivets