Interesting Black Power Armour

[Deadlift]

Guys I really need some help with black power armour. Its not that I dont know how to paint it, but how do I do it so its not boring.

I have always had a bit of a thing for Iron Hands but been put off because of all that black armour, but I have ordered from Santa a Contemptor with the Heavy Conversion Beamer. I want this model to be the beginning of my Iron Hands army. But all that black could be a bit boring on the table ?. I don't like the extreme high lights you see done using grey edging it looks too fake, I could go with weathering I suppose but if you guys have any thoughts it would be very much appreciated. Below are a couple examples of models in my old Death company before I sold them. I want to improve on these as far as the "black" is concerned. Maybe Zenithal highlights ? I am just unsure. anyway here are the pics

[Meph]

Best way to improve black is weathering... dry-sponge on metallic, grey, brown, chips and marks. In between highlight you can always apply dark washes with a colour added, like blue, or red, or green, to give a slight sheen to the colour.

[Capn Stoogey]

Something I've been playing with a bit lately is gloss varnish. You could paint the black similar to what you have here, but give it a coat of gloss. It would likely give it a cool enamelled look, with the actual light giving the armour the highlights, adding more depth to the miniature. Keep in mind this is mostly speculation as I've only really used this on lenses (which turn out pretty sweet btw...) so if you do decide to try it, maybe use a test mini to see how it goes. Good luck with whatever you decide!

[SotonShades]

One of the biggest problems with black, especially on armour, is that you can't shade it to be darker (which is why the models usually look flat). Simple solution, don't use full on black for you black!

Mix in a small amount of another colour in to your black (for iron hands, I would probably go with a blue, as that tends to work quite nicely with metallics) and paint this over your black undercoat, leaving the true black showing in the recesses. The off-black doesn't need to be too much lighter to really pop, and then simply adding more of whicheveer colour you used to the black mix can give you very dark highlights, without needing to resort to grey which, as you said, can often look a bit fake.

Again, weathering can really help break up the black, and give it something to contrast with. I would save Gloss coats for models you want to stand out in your army (such as characters) as when used over the entirety of an army, it can be quite distracting from the rest of your painting.

[fuzzbuket]

highlight with dark blue! or as sottonshades said use a VERY dark grey instead

[MaltonNecromancer]

Best way (read: most efficient for speedily and nicely painting an army) I've found is to use Charadon Granite as a highlight colour, and liberally drybrush it all over. Then, I use a very bright, carefully highlighted colour to make it look like there's more shading than there is. I use bright red for weapons/detailing, and green for lenses. Plus, lots of weathering as already mentioned.

Examples:

[A Barb]

Nice work

[phoenix01]

The Either
50/50 Adeptus Battlegrey/Chaos Black -> liberal Badab Black wash -> 2/1 Adeptus Battlegrey/Chaos Black -> Adeptus Battlegrey -> Codex Grey

The Or
50/50 Hawk Turqouise/Chaos Black -> liberal Badab Black wash -> 2/2/1 Hawk Turquoise/Chaos Black/Skull White, adding additional Skull White with each subsequent highlight until the desired effect is reached.

[doom-kitten]

Way I do black power armour is chaos black, followed by a light dry brush of 50/50 chaos black/codex grey, then highlight codex grey and finally fortress grey light edging. This is weathered down with a wash of Babab black. You could also try mixing the black with blue and using a light blue for each seperate hightlight again washing with badab black wash. Example Midnight Blue/Chaos Black basecoat, Regal Blue/Chaos black highlight and finally Enchanted Blue/Chaos Black Highlight.

[faolan]

Depends on what black effect I'm going for, but I start with either Vallejo Heavy Charcoal (German Grey is about the same colour) and wash it down with black (or used a thinned out black ink, looks very sharp for power armour), or P3's Coal Black (which has a blue/green hue to it).

I find giving the "black" overall a thinned out Sepia wash helps break it up nicely and adds a little bit of dusty depth to it with no real work, then do your first highlight in the basic colour, and your extreme edge highlight with something around the Ironhull Grey colour.