Tips on painting black blades?

[Otter]

I\'m looking to paint some black sword/spear blades and would really appreciate a model or some pointers.
The final product would probably be more along the lines of NMM (although some metal always finds its way on there).

The experiments I\'ve done so far look a little... poopy. If someone could post their work with black blades, or pointers to get a good look, I\'d appreciate it!!!

- Otter
\"Never send a ferret to do a weasel\'s work\"

 

[Errex]

Deja Vu, again...

I thougth I had posted a reply on this thread earlier, but seems the Matrix is running some upgrades.

Anyway, What I wrote was:

\"tis is the only black sword I have ever done. It is has only a bit of shadow grey line highlighting over the edges.\"

And the link to the pic:

 

[Chrispy]

I think why people have so much trouble with black is that they will paint it using black... I know that sounds crazy but listen to me: If you\'re looking at a black object in the light you know it\'s black but if you look at it with the light off or a shadow on it it\'s darker. Thus you should only use black on black objects where there is shadow. Otherwise use a very dark gray... In fact it would be easier to take black and add a tiny bit of white or grey. To stop from making things TOO grey remember that when highlighting that it will be confined to one area. Hope this helps and eventually I will update the NMM article with black as it\'s also the basis for doing crystal swords and such.

My comma key doesn\'t work!

 

[kannan_fodder]

Or you could mix a bit of blue into your black paint for highlights. That gives it the irridescent \"raven black\" look.