Thin layer of clear *before* doing touch-ups?

[bleargh]

Thought I'd ask here first before putting anything on it... IIRC pinballjim or chad have had some experience with this, and I'm hoping that one (or both) of them could chime in with some comments...

I'm in the process of doing a restore on a Williams Space Odyssey machine here (EM, not SS).  Playfield was quite dirty, so I'd given it a first wipe off to get most of the big dirt off, then used magic eraser and alcohol to clean up the swirl marks.

Even before I started, though, there were a few areas in need of some serious touch-up, where its worn down to the wood, or the grain had raised slightly in an area and the paint was flecking off.

I'm going to be using acrylic paint to do the touch-ups on the playfield, and ideally would like to tape off some areas first before going at them (I'm not *that* steady a hand any more to do the lines freehand) (areas yes, but not white areas w/black outlines).  Most specifically, I'm looking to tape off some of the white areas so I can just fill them w/white and then put waterslide decals on top with new outlines/lettering.

But... I can find anything I can put on this that won't pick up the paint and make it any worse.  I've got two spots I know are going to get redone and I'm using those areas as guinea pigs for paint lift.  Green painters tape pulled paint, as the blue "low-tack" painters tape, as did a plain old "3M Post-It-Note".

What I'm considering here right now is doing the initial "paint and smear" right on the playfield where that's going to help fill in colour in the smaller cracks in the PF, as well as some of the easier touch-ups that I know I'll be able to free-hand, all directly onto the PF.  Then, I'd like to spray a thin layer of Varathane on top of all that to give me a better surface to use to tape off the larger areas to be filled.  Fill in those areas, then apply the waterslide decals, then spray a few more thin layers of varathane on top of that.

Will the acrylic stick to the varathane?  Or, is that a hopeless cause?

[bleargh]

Thanks for the input pinballjim, that's exactly what I was hoping to get; a bit of opinion/advice from someone who's been down this path before.

And yes, I play on using the spray cans of Varathane, as opposed to trying to brush it on.  I've always had good success with the cans in the past, even though they are more expensive.

Appreciated!