I always heard these were the easiest , Shep Payne said so in his book!, But if you go with straight black then highlite with greys , they look ok , but not great, what method do you guys prefer ? Or link me to a good tutorial? Thanks
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Pactra used to make a color called scale black that was perfect. Instead of grey you might try shades of blue for highlights.
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If you all are OK with gaming paints, GW’s Corvus Black is actually a super deep grey. I use it frequently for that purpose.
Damon.
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Basically when painting black on figures don’t use black.
If you do you’ll have nothing to shadow it with!
So start with something like Vallejo Black Grey or a similar dark grey shade. There are also a few sets by various paint manufacturers for black uniforms- like German Panzer or SS uniforms- they have several shades in them and usually come with a guide
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What Karl said. Here’s a not perfect but fair example – mid-grey base, blackish wash to settle in folds, dry-brush the fold/crease peaks with a grey lighter than the base…
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A tip I once got, was to mix in pink with the base colour, add more for highlights and less for shades.
Turned out great on a 70mm SAS figure.
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You might also want to check out something called “contrast” - it’s a line of paints from Games Workshop. One colour is called “Black Templar” - it is applied over a neutral grey base and it flows into recesses which then dry very dark colour, and the ridges are automatically much lighter, so you get nicely shadowed finish in one go, that can of coure be improved with further shading.
Good luck with your project and have a nice day!
Paweł
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The first time I read this (had trouble getting a quote in, but RonW was calling attention to mixing with pink) years ago it was so counterintuitive I had to try it and I had very good results on 28mm wargames figures. Good to hear it works on larger figure scales also!
I also have an andrea black paint set (with 6 shades of “black”) that works quite well. Andrea acrylics are the best.
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even real black uniforms dont stay black as dust dirt and contaminants get caught in the weave. on top of that you have wear and tear too.
I never use pure black for anything other than filling voids. Nato black, rubber black and others or I dab a blob of colour that I feel suits for for what I want. Even using the base colour of the terrain I’m setting a kit in. Revell do a few blacks including a Teerschwartz No 361 06 which is a very dark chocolate brown.
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Just trial and error—every color you add to black gives a different shade of grey. I mostly use green or blue, and for highlights, some off-white.
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I got a request to elaborate on the process, so here it goes.
Take the base black paint and mix in a dose of pink until the desired hue is achieved. Mind you, it dries up a tad more faded than when mixed.
This mix gives a less pitchblack, but a more realistic and slightly faded look to the black. The white in the mix lightens it and the red gives a richer, warmer tone to the black. Cloth simply never really is pitchblack.
For highlights add more pink, for shadows use the unmixed black or perhaps with a dash of dark blue in it, again to break the pitchblackness.
In order to tie it all together a diluted wash of original black can be used.
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Payne’s Grey can be used to get the same ‘black with blue’ shade.
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In 1/35th I experimented at one time with various dark browns, shaded with black. It looked OK, but still not quite right. Now I just use black with dry brush overs of grey, or to more precise, lightened black, then a black wash to blend it all in. For black leather I just lightly buff matt black to give shiny highlights. High gloss black, e.g. German officers riding boots get gloss varnish.
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