| There was actually a very good article on this in, I think, Tamiya Modelling International magazine a few months ago.
The jist of it was though, don't use black as the base colour, use a dark grey instead. Then the washes and shadows can be in a very dark grey, almost black, and the highlights can shade to a medium grey. That way you can get a good range of shades in and it doesn't look as stark as black on it's own does. I would have a play but it certainly makes sense to me and remembering the scale effect on colours I think black as a base will always look too solid.
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“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days" | 
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