A coating method for forming a laminated coating film including: preparing a thermosetting coating material as a lower layer-coating material, an intermediate layer-coating material, and as an upper layer-coating material; forming an uncured laminated coating film by applying the lower layer-coating, the intermediate layer-coating, and the upper layer-coating materials on the base material using a wet-on-wet technique; and simultaneously curing the lower layer-coating, the intermediate layer-coating, and upper layer-coating materials by baking the uncured laminated coating film. In the preparation step, the lower layer-coating, the intermediate layer-coating, and the upper layer-coating materials are selected so a sum of an absolute value of a difference in shrinkage ratio between the lower layer-coating and the intermediate layer-coating materials and an absolute value of a difference in shrinkage ratio between the intermediate layer-coating and the upper layer-coating materials at the late stage of the baking is 3.0% or smaller.

A surface appearance simulation system includes a carrier web or fluoropolymer film, an overcoat layer disposed on the carrier web or fluoropolymer film, a pigment layer having one or more inks forming a design on the overcoat layer, and a ground coat layer. The carrier web supports the overcoat layer, the pigment layer and the ground coat layer during application of the ground coat layer with a surface of a target object prior to removing the carrier web from the overcoat layer with the carrier web directly abutting the overcoat layer without one or more slip additive materials between the carrier web and the overcoat layer prior to removing the carrier web.

Provided is an aqueous coating composition that can exhibit high coating film performance even when cured at a relatively low temperature. The present invention pertains to an aqueous coating composition comprising (A) a hydroxyl group-containing resin and (B) a blocked polyisocyanate compound. The weight average molecular weight of the blocked polyisocyanate compound (B) is in a range of 20,000-200,000.