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This in mainly cuz im too lazy to read through all the posts to find out how you guys did it. What are some methods of black highlighting you have had success with in the past? I have most of the citadel paint range, and for some reason my black highlights look silly, so any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Most of the time high light might look silly due to the grey
been directly too bright.

I havnt found a single GW grey dark enough to be the next shade yet, but some people use black wash to tone it down.

( for me thats just one extra step when we could apply better shade gray )

You can do it in a variety of ways. It all depends on how "high" you want to take the highlight. Are you going all the way up to white-ish for greater contrasts or do you just want a simple highlight for the black?

If all you want is a slight highlight for your black areas, there's basically 2 good ways. Either you mix 50/50ish of Chaos Black and Adeptus Battlegrey (or Codex Grey for that matter) and just apply that highlight, or you use pure Adeptus/Codex grey and then wash with Badab Black once dry.

If you're going for a brighter starker highlight, here's a simple guideline:

Chaos Black
50/50 Chaos Black/Adeptus battlegrey
Adeptus Battlegrey
50/50 Adeptus Battlegrey/Astronomican grey
Astronomican Grey.

After you've applied all layers of highlights, its easy "masking" the color transitions using a careful wash of Badab Black.

The best way to try new things isnt on your centrepiece models. Take an old (insert whatever model you have spare) and try different techniques on it.

I have an Abaddon the Despoiler that looks like he's straight out of a My Little Pony episode, from trying out different painting techniques for my Harlequin Troupe

For cloth:

Black
Black + codex grey
Codex grey:




For armour:
Black
Codex grey edging




These days though I do (for cloth):
Black
Adeptus battle grey
Devlan mud wash (would use badab black for amour).

Payne's Grey is a good, very dark gray. If I wanted to do black figures I would basecoat them with Payne's Grey and put a wash of pure black in the lowlights.

If you remember black is rarely blackly black, you'll be fine. It could be a greeny or bluey or purpley or reddy black (or some other shade that eludes me.

When you decide what colour your black really is, just make a very dark tint of your chosen colour and apply it. The higher the light for the more reflective the material. IE cloth, not very but plastic/metal very.

I am a huge fan of Delta Ceramacoat's Storm Grey for highlighting black. It works wonders and is usually less than a $1 for a huge bottle that will last ages!

I use shadow grey.At first I didn't think it would
work,but it does!The trick is to make sure you don't
highlight every thing in sight.

If you want try out a high gloss poly-urithane over black. It will highlight itself for you. Don't use a spray. Though get a small can (1/2 pint I think) for around 5bucks. It is also great for making things look "wet" or certain clothing articles look like vynil. I would also reccomend mixing a batch of black with another base. Which. Is what Amen was talking about. I reccomend going to an art store and getting a relatively large container + as dark of a red/blue/brown or color of your choosing in a concentrated pigment paint and a tube of liquitex Mars Black. Then mix them to your desired "base black". Then use either an extended or acrylic medium to thin the paint as artist acrylics tend tone about 1/3 thicker than GW of Vallejo paints. Don't use water because you need the other things in the paint that "stick" and such (sorry brain fart). There reason you want a whole lot is because you want everything the same color. I also never reccomend painting from the pot. Have fun mixing colors it will make your army more unique.

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it!!!!!

Gonads post pretty much covered it.

I use codex grey and line highlight most everything, on show pieces I work my way up from 25%codex grey 75% chaos black up to pure codex grey, making sure to blend well.