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Hey guys,

Just won some Thallax on ebay of a fellow dakka user (cheers dude, payment will be made tomorrow).

Any idea how this guy got this real deep shine on their visors? Is the white actually painted on or is it a deep gloss varnish/water effect?

http://www.coolminiornot.com/330710?browseid=6807029

Highlight the black a little and then hit it with a brush on clear gloss sealer?

Or a touch of floor or car wax?

Or use Vallejo Glossy Black.

That looks like gloss. If you attempt to highlight under it, it will look off, since the highlights wont line up with the real reflection.

Much like with real metallics, surface prep is the key. Clean all mold lines, fill bubbles, smooth to avoid any abrupt changes that are not wanted. You may need to sand as well depending on the condition of the surface. It needs to be perfectly smooth as any imperfections will catch the light and be applified.

Paint using your preferred method, though skip highlights, shading and other junk in areas you want glossy. Brushes can work, though you will need to be careful as the brush strokes can leave a surface texture that comes through. Airbrushes and careful masking are what I use.

Once that is done, choose a gloss clear coat. Many modelers will just use Future Floor polish, as it is cheap and easy to get a hold of. Spray a light coat and let dry. Repeat two or three more times to build up a good layer of high shine finish.

Mask off the glossy areas and then spray with matte or satin depending on your desired sheens for other areas. Depending on the model and how many different sheens and where they will be applied, you may vary the order of things. This one though, I think I would do the gloss first than mask it off. Other times I will do the matte finishes first and mask those off to apply the gloss.

Finish with weathering as desired keeping in mind stuff like dust and dirt tends to be on the outside of things like windows so it will be on top of your glossy mask thing.

The other option is of course to use flat finishes and a fake hot spot. Objects with high reflective surfaces will have crisp hot spots, so in order to make it look extra shiney, paint a solid black and then use a solid white to make the reflection point. It helps to have something on hand that you can use as an example, I keep glass Christmas ornaments in the bottom drawer of my paint desk for just that purpose. Figure out what angle you want the light to be coming from and then shine a desk lamp on an ornament with roughly the correct shape. Use that to get the light position correct on your model.

Finish with a matte finish as usual.

Cheers guys will give some those a go. I have a few gloss varnish sprays in the garage as well as wax and polish lol will try some different ones out on some test models

One good way to do this is to put down a nice thick coat of black ink (not wash, but shiny ink) over a black basecoat. Works great for black leather coats and the like.