I am in the process of building our Police Dept’s 1/48 Hughes 500E which is a medium metal flake blue base with a lighter metal flake blue Stripes. I’ve got the medium metal flake blue but can’t find a lighter shade that is close. I’ve never mixed metal flake paints before. Can I just mix a lighter blue with the base medium metal flake blue or do I need to use a lighter metal flake blue to get the correct shade.
No idea but you might try silver metal flake paint from the same brand as a mix.
Start with the silver and add the blue a little at a time. If you work the other way around, you’ll end up adding a lot of silver to lighten the blue.
You may find that you might not get the exact shade just by mixing the silver and blue. If your particular paint brand has them, you may be able to tint by adding an appropriate transparent colour.
Try a gloss white primer which should give the paint a lighter look