Andrea Paints advice please

[Johnny Boy]

Morning all, over the years I've bought Black paint sets and varying shades from various manufacturers but never seem to get it right, ending up with a grey finish rather than black highlighted. Recently I saw the Andrea Paint black set but before I spend quite a not inconsiderable amount of pennies on it I wondered if anyone out there has experience of Andrea Paints and advice on their best use.
Many thanks in advance
Johnny Boy

[Johnny Boy]

Have I posted this in the right place or does nobody use these paints?

[Oldben1]

Yes, you have posted in the right section.  I am afraid I have no experience with those paints.  Give it some time, someone will post.

[zemjw]

I have a few of the Andrea sets - black, white and flesh.

There are five bottles in the set - from 3rd shadow to 2nd light, but I only ever use three of them. I either use 1st or 2nd shadow as the base, as I find the "base" too grey. I shade with nuln oil and highlight with 1st light.

I do like the set, and the darker greys are good "not quite black, but definitely not grays" (although vallejo black grey comes close) The highlight blacks are a slightly odd "almost grey" and I'm not so keen on them.

They're really designed for 54mm and up painters who are looking to do multiple subtle highlighting and shading passes, so may be overkill for 28mm and below.
 
Handling wise, they're no problem and fully on a par with vallejo, reaper and gw, with no weird thinning requirements *cough* Tamiya *cough*

For the other sets I have, I'm not so keen on the whites, as they're warm, bordering on cream. The flesh, however, has been my goto for caucasian flesh for years now.

If you haven't tried vallejo black grey (70862), it's worth testing before buying the Andrea set.

[robh]

..........ending up with a grey finish rather than black highlighted.

There is no such thing as a pure black paint, even the most recent super light absorbent compounds are only 94% black. (it was on Kickstarter a few months ago).
Question is, what are you mixing with black to make your highlight?
If you want to avoid greys you need to be mixing with green, red or blue (or a combination there of like purple or turquoise)
Never mix white with black to make a highlight for black surfaces unless you are aiming for a high gloss reflective look..

[Blackwolf]

Pink or Vallejo's Sunny Skintone are actually good for highlighting black

[Dr Mathias]

There is no such thing as a pure black paint, even the most recent super light absorbent compounds are only 94% black. (it was on Kickstarter a few months ago).
Question is, what are you mixing with black to make your highlight?

The 'Black 3.0' I acquired is very matte, I'm truly impressed at how 'dark' it is. Its handling is terrible though, the 'brushibility' for lack of a better term is quite bad. I have used it here and there on miniatures but it doesn't lend itself to subtle shading.

I mostly use pink or bluish-grey for highlighting black.

[levied troop]

My BUF in this  link were painted using Andrea’s black set:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=113085.msg1415226#msg1415226

I haven’t really used it since, preferring a simpler approach, but I think they worked well.

[Brandlin]

@Johnny Boy - At the risk of being argumentative I would suggest that if you have had issues with a number of other black paints that the problem is more likely to be with your approach rather than the paints themselves.

I would echo the comments made by a number of others here in how to highlight black and not to simply mix in white.

Rather than an expensive set of 'blacks' i have a simple black (foundry or vallejo) and mix my highlights as I go... often using a bone, skin or pale yellow colour depending on the effect I want.  This even works for a regimented feel across a number of figures if you are careful with the ratios you use to mix colours and write them down for future reference.

Sorry _ I have no experience with the andrea paints - not my approach. Although I have heard others swear by them.

[Johnny Boy]

A great many thanks to you all for some great advice. I have used pink to mix black highlight with some very pleasing results but having a goldfish like memory had forgotten! Must be an age thing. . . Another thing I suppose is I was looking for an easy fix straight out the bottle but I think with some of the excellent tips here I shall persevere with mixing. If I ever get the hang of technology I'll post some pics
Many thanks again
Johnny Boy