spirit of st. louis

You could go that route, but most of the airframe is fabric. I used Testors aluminum,  but wasn't totally satisfied with it. I think Tamiya sells a silver color that would look better.

I used Testors gloss silver on mine and it looked fine.  That is for whole airframe except cowl.  The cowl on original was engine turned aluminum.  The recent Revell 148 kit gives you decals for the cowl.  You can use the decals over the same aluminum.  For other kits I'd use a flat aluminum and some technique for simulating the turning.