painting black

[raykey]

Got some special forces(15mm sas), They have black uniform and black body armour,how do you deliniate berween the  two, tried different ideas but they just look black

[Fenton]

Maybe a charcoal grey highlight on the edges of the armour?

[raykey]

Will give it a go cheers

[Ace of Spades]

Since I paint with enamels I don't know if my advice will be of much use, but for what it's worth: Humbrol have a very dark grey (Panzergrey I believe it's called) and I use that for black cloth and items like that. You'll see the difference when you paint 'true' black next to it. After that a dark grey highlight on some of the 'soft' items usually does it...

Cheers,
Rob

[Ithoriel]

I tend to use different highlights - dark grey, dark blue, dark purple or very dark brown depending on what the material is supposed to be. I tend to use grey for fabric and the other colours for harder stuff like armour. Alternatively, all one colour highlight with matt varnish for fabric and gloss for leather/ armour/ etc.

Works for me, YMMV  

[Ace of Spades]

Sounds sensible too Ithoriel and indeed is something that I also do!

Cheers,
Rob

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Black, then black wash, then highlight dark grey on the edges. If it's black metallic then a flash of white helps!

[Matt J]

blue grey edge on the armour something a bit subtler on the cloth.
Here are some of the 10mm scifi marines, the cloth isn't black but I used that technique on the armour.

[Poggle]

If I have two areas of black to paint, I mix some flesh tone in one batch of paint. It makes a kind of 'rusty' black shade.

[Last Hussar]

The cloth should be lighter - it gets washed more.

[Subedai]

Vallejo do  a Black Grey (862) which works really well as an alternative to black.

[Rob]

I had a similar problem when painting my boys LOTR orcs (I know  ), every thing was very dark and the armour and helmets were black. I had a eureka moment when I dry brushed with silver. It made all the edges and high points stand out.

You might try grey, but I have found (except for armour) the best dry brushed high lighter is buff as it always seems to look very natural.

Cheers, Rob 

[Last Hussar]

I used "bolt metal" drybrush

[paulr]

Vallejo do  a Black Grey (862) which works really well as an alternative to black.

This is now my favorite "black" after some earlier advice on the forum

... I have found (except for armour) the best dry brushed high lighter is buff as it always seems to look very natural.

I use a very very light dry brush of  Vallejo Deck Tan as a final highlight

[nikharwood]

I did my 28mm SWAT team using grey highlights for cloth & blue for armour:

http://nikharwood28mm.pbworks.com/w/page/7827194/SWAT%20team