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The only thing I have left to do on my eldar test model is its Spirit Stones. I want to pain them black, however how should I give them the appropriate depth? I've painted gems before but black just confuses me.

I'm using P3 paint if that helps at all.

The same techniques for painting spirit stones in any other color should hold. The only difference is that you'll be using shades of grey to highlight instead of, say, orange if your spirit stone was red. A bit of paint-able gloss varnish (Citadel's 'Ard Coat, for example) after you clear coat the model should help the effect as well.

^What he said. However, I'd say you should rather use shades of dark blue or purple when making black spirit stones - paint a small line of colour on the lower part and the ardcoat it, that looks great.

Yep, shades of grey, bit of gloss varnish, sorted.

I agree with the idea of dark blue or purple, if you ever look at a black gemstone of any sort you should see a little of some color in it, maybe even try some google image searches for onyx or something.

Would have to agree with the purple to go for a kinda obsidian look

Thanks for the replies. I use enough gray in the models already so I'll go with purple or blue.