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Hey Guys.

I'm using Dark Green and Black for my Dark Angels successor chapter, but I'm having issues making the black look like anything other than "I got bored with spray paint" if ya know what I mean. Does anyone have any good shading advice on how to make Black stand out a little better. I've seen a lot with Whites and all, but am stuck on the other side of the spectrum.

Humor me, are you trying to make the black parts of your black & green paint scheme stand out? If thats the case then maybe highlight the edges of the black w/grey.

Yup, that's basically what I want to do. My only fear of highlighting is -over- highlighting or using too light of a gray.

I've had the same problem. What I've done is highlight the stuff right around the black (in your case, with a slightly lighter green) and put several coats of pure black wash and then shiny painted on hardcoat to make the black very bright with a bright sheen.

You can either use codex grey then wash over the grey/black with badab black or you can just mix chaos black and codex grey. Two easy ways not to over-highlight.

I have had the same problem with some of my modles. I basically used a mix of fortress gray and black and did 2 stages of the grey.

Use the "toned black" method. Add 1 part of the green to 8 parts of the black. Against any other color, it will still look black but against black, it will look like black-green.

One technique that works well, and takes little time is fine-lining. Load up your brush with a small amount of paint, then use the edge of the brush to apply tiny highlights to the very edges.

This works very well with black, as you can use almost pure white for your highlights. If you have trouble applying them evenly, use a thin wash of badab black to dull everything slightly.

Vallejo have a paint color called "Gray Black"

when used it looks just like a light glare off a matt black.
(but its not, its the paint's color )

I guess thats as natural as it can get

you can do something called progressive highlighting.
much the same as the normal way, but you use a dark ish grey (fortress grey works well) and simply highlight the most protruding parts of the armour edging.
so around knee pads, the tips of the feet.

same as highlighting, except its more subtle, but still gets rid of the basic flat black look.
and where its not so stand out ish you dont have to worry about it being over the top unless the lines are very thick.

if you need it standing out more then you can allways add an even thinner highlight to the allready existing one using codex grey.

One trick is to use a really dark grey and then wash with Badab Black. It looks like highlighted black and works well. Otherwise I drybrush with two layers of grey (medium then light) and then apply one or two layers of black wash. This evens out the color, looks good, and is super fast.

Here is example for the gray black it looks natural i think

What i do is mix a 1/1 batch of codex grey and chaos black. Then I highlight the edges everywhere. Afterwards, I apply straight codex grey to the edges which would naturally have the most light hitting them (tops of things). If that's too bright for you then just wash it with Badab Black.

I was in the same situation as you a several weeks ago. I am fairly new to the hobby but I have had some success getting my blacks to look better.

I usually start by undercoating with Neutral Grey Gesso as opposed to the spray primer. Mix up three shades Gesso, Dark Grey (add black paint), neutral, Light Grey (add white paint). Use the neutral Gesso in the regions that should be lighter, and the light Gesso in the extremes. Shading with the Gesso is probably more time consuming then its worth so you may just want to do it all in dark Grey.

Now for the painting, I use Cermacoat acrylics colors Charcoal Grey, Hippo Grey and White (maybe not the best but certainly good value for someone new like me). I do the base coat in Charcoal, then the light areas in Hippo and the extremes in white. The model at this point will look very distinctive just not very black.

Next I ink. I use Higgins Black Magic Drawing ink, make sure to get the kind designed to be watered down says 'brush' on the back of the box. The ink will need to be watered down, at least 1:1 you may want to water it down more. You may need to apply a couple of coats in the lighter areas to get the black just where you want it.

Finally I dry brush sparingly with some Shadow Grey.


Now I am supposed a picture that is supposed to impress you but I am sorry to disappoint but I really suck at painting.
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/9936/dsc00224e.jpg

The upper body gives you some idea of the results. The lower body gives you an idea of what happens when you apply too much ink

Hey, thanks a lot for the help guys. It'll come in handy.

As for paints, I've been using the FolkArt brand and have been having a decent outcome with them.