Paint it Black! - Painting VC Pyjamas

I'm curious how you guys represent the color black, when painting VC pyjamas?

There was recently an excellent post on this over at Lead Adventure Forum, with folks there sharing how they achieve black.

Painting Black Uniforms on Minis - Vietcong....

I figured I'd troll the membership here to see how you all do it.

And....... GO!

Black
Mid-level highlights with a very dark grey
A light grey for highlights so you can see some detail

The hard trick is not to turn it gray!

I either use Rod's method, or start with a medium gray, wash with black and highlight with a slightly lighter gray than the base coat was. The wash will have darkened the base coat of medium gray, thus not too much lighter highlight than that original medium gray.

I only paint 20mm Vietnam and usually use the second method. If I were painting 15mm or smaller I would use Rod's method.

Tom

Tom

I have tried doing fancy shading with black pyjamas and concluded it was largely a waste of time as in 20 mm scale you just can't see that level of detail when they're on the tabletop, so I spray a base coat of black and then go over it with Tamiya NATO Black to give it depth. NATO Black is actually a very dark grey, so it looks like some fading has occurred. I've also been experimenting with variations on the near-black, using some cheap house paint to give some slight variations but again,on the tabletop I really can't tell the difference.

Dark grey - wash with black - highlight with the original dark grey.

I prime black, highlight with dark gray, then use wash of Army Painter dark tone.

For me, since I prime in black, it's a pretty quick process. I use Vallejo German Grey over black, then highlight a couple of shades using Vallejo Light Grey mixed in with German Grey. It's subtle, but too much "pop" doesn't seem right to my eyes.

In terms of 20mm ; I always tried to avoid the black just like painting german tank crew in black just felt and looked ''wrong'' ... but much like that last post on LAF , a white undercoat helps with a thinned down black . The new GW contrast over a white or grey undercoat helps . Adding brown leather belts green webbing chi com rigs etc brings out the ''colour'' a bit more .
I try to think more ''1865'' as my rebel army and give variety with grey, mustard , brown , green jackets and trousers .