I was wondering if any company out there makes the basic WW2 airplane colors in gloss. What I mean by that is, rather than paint (for example) an olive drab over neutral grey P-47 using flat paint, then a top coat of gloss, then the decals, then another layer of flat…why don’t they just make gloss colors so we can easily apply the decals without silvering? It would mean one less layer of something which could reduce detail (eg. fine panel or rivet details). You can purchase both flat and gloss sea blue but you can’t find flat and gloss OD or other such colors. At least I can’t find them. Does anyone know if such colors exist in gloss? If so, where can I find them?
Try this Testors link, Eric. There are many semi-gloss and a few gloss paints in military colors available from them. The majority of the semi-gloss colors, though, appear to be in the German and Russian side of the house. I just painted my ICM BS-3 100mm field artillery piece Russian Armor Green. Turns out it was semi-gloss, but gloss enough that I could have put decals on it with no additional gloss coats.
Try XtraColor enamels available from Rollmodels. Great selection of colors in gloss. Comes in tins like Humbrol paints, 14 ml. which is just slightly less than 1/2 oz. I’ve used them to very good effect thinning with Model Master airbrush thinner.
Because gloss colors take longer to dry and that can introduce dust into the paint much easier.
I like the speed at which flat colors dry for this reason.
I don’t think the fine atomization of paint from an airbrush hides any detail whatsoever.
Now if you were using spray cans I would agree completely.
Agree with Mike on the drying time. Also, if you’ve ever tried a glossy finish on a car, you’re probably familiar with Ms Orange Peel. Smoothing that out to an acceptably even surface is far more likely to result in loosing detail than several fine coats of clear. Not smooting it out will give an completely unrealistic look to a small scale aircraft.
I agree with everyone here. I DO like the drying time of flats. Can’t beat that.
Charles, thanks for the tip on XtraColor! I will definitely have to look into them! I thought that by having one less step such as applying a gloss coat would be just one less step where something could possibly go wrong. You know what Murphey’s Law says. LOL!