The Vallejo oily steel works for the headlight…
The sealed decal silvering issue… I would lightly airbrush the base colour over the worst of it…live and learn…
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I am tempted to do that, but I am really afraid of turning it into a disaster.
I inspected the model, it seems that the hardened varnish made things better, it’s even less noticeable now.
I find a base coat of FUTURE always helps get the decals down…
Micro-Sol/Set…Tamiya Mark Fit…good products …then FUTURE to seal… and it’s ready for battle…Trumpeter KV-2 here…
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[quote]I need some very clear and shining steel color for the track’s wearing and to paint the headlight internal part.
What is the best choice for this? [/quote]
Nightgaunt,
On the paint palette 
just mix a drop or two of Gunmetal and Silver together. Take an old paint brush lightly dry brush. Wipe most (95%) of the paint out of the brush before dry brushing.
The color can be tweaked as desired.
Was the model gently washed in warm soapy water before painting? That gets rid of a lot of dust and grime. After model is washed and has dried keep in air tight dust free container until time to paint.
Use a clean plastic container with lid that’s been washed washed and dried. Lot of that dust probably came from the paper box.
Dirt in paint looks like dirt in paint. #15 scalpel blade to flick out dust specks can work. Care drybrushing to touch up spots. I’ve done that many times but only with a new sharp #15 scalpel blades. It’s undetectable with careful drybrushing.
Regarding decal issues. This process has been Fail Safe for me for nearly 30 years. All of the following gloss and flat done with airbrush.
A) 2 coats of gloss for whole model.
B) Decals trimmed and applied with Micro-Set/Micro-Sol or other decal solution. May take six applications and pin pricking decal if fil is tough. That’s rare.
C) 2 coats of gloss over decal and area near it. Helps hide decal film.
D) Flat coat 2 coats.
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What are you using for thinner? I used to think my paint jobs were smooth only to have decals silver and washes spread out like they were flowing into a valley.
I recently switched to lacquer thinner, and man is that stuff smooth! I think the slivering might be due to a few small irregularities in the paint.
Oily steel is oily steel I guess, can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be just as good. The Hannants stuff is just the best though.
Won’t work for a headlight - on account of that the headlight interior is chromed. Thus, chrome is the colour you need to use.
@Armor_Buff, yeah, probably next time I’ll have to wash the box too…lesson learned, I guess.
The scalpel thing and drybrushing is a good idea, I’ll try that on the most noticeable parts.
Unfortunately the only metal color I got is gunmetal grey, non silver at all. What if I add some white to that? 
Otherwise, I’ll to wait for another trip to the store as the only affordable color that I can get delivered is Oily Steel. Which according to @Khouli won’t be good for headlight, I suspected that!
Micro products do not seem to exist here, and the lower I found for delivery is 20 € per bottle.
I guess that would be a problem for future models, my next project is going to be a Panzer II with very tiny decals on flat surfaces, should be easy.
@Mead93, I used vallejo acrylics paints so I used Vallejo acrylic thinner. Model was primed with Tamiya Fine Primer.
I’ve never used Vallejo out of an airbrush so no advice there.
FYI microset smells suspiciously of vinegar, and I’ve heard some folks use liquid cement or lacquer thinner VERY sparingly on stubborn decals but you have to be very careful
@Nightgaunt , in that case I’d mix two drops of your Gunmetal color with one drop of white on your color palette 
and drybrush on paper and evaluate the result.
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Judging by this post and several of your previous posts, I can only deduce that you are serving the longest ever tour on the International space Station…
Do you know, it does - now you mention it. I use Microsol and Microset, both work very well.
You can use Model Color in a airbrush even though it’s meant for brush painting. The harder trick is brush painting Air Colors.
Probably would still add a drop or two of their retarder to the mix.
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I do not live in the Third World, but I live in a very socially/economically depressed area of the country.
Most scale model stores closed after the 90’ and now the very few that remain only deal in motorized racing models. Static modeling is just an afterthought for them, most do not even sell kits, let alone paints.
I do have a nice store in a city not too far, but it’s a traffic nightmare to reach with no close parking. Gas and parking alone would cover the amazon delivery costs.
Anyway, I phoned them and they do not have those Micro products. Found them on Amazon but it’s 20 € minimum.
I found this for 4 euros, free delivery, do you think it would be fine for the headlights interior and the tracks’ drybrush?
It should do what you want.
Also, the weathering on the turret looks great, and you seem to have fixed the problems with the decals, awesome!
Ken
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Vallejo Model Air doesnt need thinning. You do, however, need to add a couple of drops of Flow Improver / drying retarder to stop the tip dry effect.
I tend to airbrush Model Air with a wet sponge in a dish on the bench and every time the tip dries a little and it starts to sputter, just rub the tip of the nozzle on the sponge and it clears it.
It LOOKS like it does but it doesn’t. It looks really thick in the cup and if it was Model Color or Tamiya or LifeColor you would thin it to the milk consistency but for some reason Model Air sprays fine without thinning, straight from the bottle.
I have no idea why that is. There is some chemical hocus pocus going on in there that allows what looks like a far, far too thick paint to spray so well when other brands even half as thick would create huge problems. I used to slag off VMA a lot as i didn’t understand this. I’ve always until recently exclusively airbrushed Tamiya (which does need a fair bit of thinning) and more or less wrote off the VMA i had as useless. Once you stop treating it like other paints you take the first step to being able to use it properly. It isnt like anything else. The first time i put it in the cup unthinned i was cringing as i know only too well how difficult it is to clean when you screw things up… but a couple of drops of retarder really does the business.
Whisper this quietly but i actually prefer it to Tamiya now.
Stop laughing at the back. No really i do.
Its cheaper, you can thin it and clean it with water, there are a lot more colours available and the equivalent Model Color is great if you want to brush it for highlights, as you know the colours are exactly the same. Its really good stuff.
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Dont worry too much about the track drybrushing. Believe it or not a 2B pencil works just the same and provides the same effect but is easier to manage. I use it all the time.
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I think it depends on what techniques ones using, VMA/VMC don’t do hairspray chipping well in my experience (could be user error too). I have better results with Tamiya. I have been using Tamiya’s retarder and Mr Color Leveling thinner on my Tamiya paints. If you haven’t tried it on the light colors like white, treat yourself.
At the end of the day, everyone has their preference, if it works for you it works for you.
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Spot on.
Exactly right.
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Guys, I need help, I am in full panic mode.
I lost some tiny pieces. I’d rather not even describe how it happened, it was definitely my fault and I learned a very harsh lesson.
Here are the pieces:
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The headlight. I still got the lens, fortunately.
Also lost the tiny headlight support that goes on the hull, but I could jury-rig that. -
One of the hooks that hold the towing cable. One of them got detached from the hull while I was applying pigments and I had it stored for re-glueling.
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The little chain used to open the engine hatch. I can live withoitrh it, I see most models posted around lack it.
Now…
What can I do?
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I tried to look for specific parts but didn’t found those. Anyway, I see these parts usually sell for a premium and with the delivery costs I could just re.buy the kit.
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I was thinking for a similar kit, maybe a KV-1 which could have the same parts…but it would have to have them as spare parts! Do you know any kit that has them?
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I could try to jury rig the stuff…I got a spare machine-gun ball bearing that could pass for a headlight (but it’s a little bigger). The hook, I could try to modify one of the fender supports, I got some spares.
EDIT:
Found them, spreaded around in my underwear drawer.
Lesson learned: pieces go into ziplocks, always.