I made up my mind (sort of...)

I had some success with decals and clear coats, so I thought I could make it work for me. I must confess though that my latest attempt at making nice "Team Lotus" markings was another failure and that I cannot resolve myself to not having them on the car. So my strategy is to use the decals of the kit and spray clear coats over them.

The "Lotus Ford" decal went onto the nose without any problem. It must be said that without any rivet or so on the way, there is no need for conforming the decal to any shape. It is a bit of a shame that the Tamiya team did not trace a dark coloured circle around the Lotus logo to make it spring to the eye. It goes un-noted in the yellow stripe...

The side markings were a bit more of a nuisance. The left side one was broken in three pieces when I was to slide it onto the model. So it required a little adjustment here and there but the result is not half bad. I did not anticipate shrinkage and there is now a narrow line between the bits, but nothing worth throwing names at them. The right side decal was broken only in two. The yellow colour is different from the yellow paint, but I am convinced it is still better to have the decals on the car anyway. I had to use some Micro-Set from Microscale to shape the decals around the rivets around the side openings.