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So how do people highlight the main colour of e.g. space marine shoulderpads, where there are no outward edges due to the armour being surrounded by trim? Is it a case of simply highlighting as close as possible to the trim, or something else?

Thanks in advance!

I'm no pro. So take what I am about to say with a grain of salt.

In the case of shoulder pads with trim... The highlight on the pad itself, should go on the "highest curved part". Where the light would strike it. So not edge highlighted. If you were to paint a highlight "close to the trim as possible" it would look like the recess where they meet is lit up, and that would look out of place.

The easiest way to think about it or do it is with a wash. The wash will settle in the recess near the trim leaving the middle rounded part of the pad lighter.

The harder way is to actually paint the highlight in, (on?)

Hopefully a better painter than I can chime in with a more succinct explanation or even an example.

Well there are dozens of ways to do it, really comes down to flavor. For me i use an air brush.

For example my steps to make green armor are Caliban base

Warpstone through an airbrush from the top, and at a 45 degree all around the model.

Last spot highlighting with moot, then lightly wash, gives a nice good highlight.

You can also do a more more time consuming process of blending and or glazing, These are not really things you would want to do for your table top, unless all you have is time on your hand as it can take a while to just get one done. Air brush is the quicket, best way to highlight on flat surfaces.

I'm doing a form of edge highlighting on my imperial fists shoulderpads. The idea is doing a wash in the recesses and then line a small ways away from the main place where the wash settles. It looks great in my experience but as others have said, there are countless ways to do this.