I've often encountered people asking me how to do car modeling and the secrets of finishing it nice and glossy.

Useful Reference:
Italian Horses: How to Apply, Polish, and Wax Your Paint to Perfection

Here's a step by step on how I prepare the kit for gloss.

Note: All paints and gloss coats were done using spray cans.

1. Wash the kit with soap if it is oily with mould release (but kits nowadays don't really have this problem)

2. Sand away mould lines from kit.

3. Prime the kit.
IMPORTANT: Use white primer for all colors unless you are doing a black or metallic coloured car so that your colour can 'shine'

4. Mist Coat

5. Body Wet Coat

Wet Coat = Spraying the paint onto the kit until the surface looks wet. Best to do this in a dust-free area and note that this is a thick coat and will need more time to cure.

6. Gunze Lacquer Gloss (because i find it forms the hardest coat for wet sanding and polishing)

7. Ready for wet sanding and polishing

Below are the pics to show the difference between the layers.
(Colour used : Tamiya spray can Racing Blue)

The different layers ( left to right ) :

Gloss, Body Wet Coat, Mist Coat, Primer, Bare Plastic

Now you can see the shine after the gloss.

Before

After

What are Mould lines?

(Raised or sunken lines produced during the plastic moulding process)