A high gloss color finish for a plastic article is formed by coating and curing a colored primer layer (12) onto a plastic substrate (10). A light transmissive basecoat (14) is applied and cured onto the primer layer (12) to form a substrate (10) with a colored surface. Indium islands (20) are vacuum deposited onto the basecoat (12) to a thickness up to 100 Angstroms to form a visually macroscopically continuous layer (21). The island layer (21) is etched to remove smaller sized islands. A transparent topcoat (24) is applied onto the basecoat and indium islands and cured in place.