I'm already planning the next board but I want to put a decorative paint job on the board before clear coating, likely to be only a few solid colours with a little masking but want to have the CF as the main background with the pattern superimposed on top if you get the drift.

Not sure what to use or how to do it, I want to get an idea before I approach the local paint shop with the idea or would it be better to use large vinyl decals instead of paint? The smaller stuff is like ID plates/warnings etc I'm getting done in vinyl to clear coat over but the other stuff is going to be 400mm ish diameter so a large area to have as vinyl.

I've not had to do anything other than clear coat before so a bit in the dark on this one... If I was to to the whole board I'd be looking at hi-build PU primer and paint over that but it's just a small area I want to cover

(no gel surface layer, just epoxy)

Thanks
Chris

Have a look at squirt canoes.  They use a clear gelcoat and paint on the reverse of that before layup.  This essentially traps the colour beneath the gel.  The other way I've seen it done is to mask and paint coloured gel into the mould prior to layup.  Obviously the gel is then your pattern.  you'd have to put your clear in the coloured gel on the back for a small patterned part.  Hope this helps.