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Hi, how to I make on of my existing paints a gloss or get a gloss effect? I was thinking of just adding a layer of glaze medium

Coat of gloss varnish afterwards

Can I paint over varnish? I want a glossy layer to add another layer to

Depending on the varnish, you may find paint doesn't key on to a gloss varnish properly. In that case it may be better to use a gloss acrylic medium, either mixed with the paint or as a separate coat.

What are you trying to do where you need to apply gloss and then paint over top? Normally you would gloss as a very last step. If you only want parts of the model to be glossy, you can apply the gloss by brush.

You don't want to be painting over gloss if you can help it.

I bought green stuff world chameleon paints, they are metallic paints that’s change colour depending on the angle of the light. They say you should base with gloss black and I have a can of gloss black spray but I want to use it on smaller sections of models and not necessarily with a black base. So I want the ability to gloss any dark colour to apply this paint.

I'd imagine you'd get the effect just putting them over a good acrylic base layer, but yeah just buy a gloss rattlecan, then a brush on matte medium to cover any areas you don't want gloss once you're done.

mrFickle wrote:
They say you should base with gloss black and I have a can of gloss black spray but I want to use it on smaller sections of models and not necessarily with a black base. So I want the ability to gloss any dark colour to apply this paint.

Why are you trying to apply it over non-black, though? You can do it, but you won't get a strong colorshift effect. They're really meant to be applied over gloss black.

I would suggest selectively painting the areas you want to have colorshift in black, then apply gloss varnish by brush or airbrush.

Yes I want to use it on small areas of models, such as shoulder pads, so don’t want to gloss black the whole model and I have tried it quickly on some darker colours like purple with interesting and likeable effects so want to explore further

If you have tried it in a non standard way and you liked it why are you asking? In your shoes I'd just get brush on gloss black and use it on the areas you want. I think greenstuff world said that you can mix the chameleons with inks, you might want to try that instead of using a different undercoat.