I am new to the hobby and about to begin my first build (a Tamiya 1:48 P-51 "Blue Nose"). Although I do plan on eventually airbrushing my models, I want to take things slowly and get familiar with the "basics" of the hobby. I am, therefore, starting off handbrushing exclusively. I was going to use Tamiya paints (to match the model), but after reading so much about their poor performance via handbrushing, I have decided to go with Vallejo Model Color paints instead. However, when looking at a Tamiya/Vallejo conversion chart, I noticed that it appears that unlike Tamiya, Vallejo doesn't make gloss paints. Instead one must mix their flat paints with a separate Vallejo gloss (#510?) to achieve the desired glossy effect. Is this correct? If so, is it difficult to master this additional step? Can anyone provide some more details on this, or set me straight if I am wrong?

Thanks so much!

hi,

the easiest way is to use whatever paint you want matt or gloss and then put a topcoat of gloss over it before you put the decals on.

paul