Hey Ho Jim.
I didn't see you post of many hours ago, sorry about the last reply.
Black Bunny was high gloss black was she not. As far s I am aware, gloss black will be almost impossible to modulate in the normal sense of the term. if you just want to break it up a bit so its not a sea of black, like on a non-shiny thing, I would suggest trying something like varying the undercoat. Dark blues, Grey tones, Dark greens and deep reds. Mist the gloss black on top until you can just see the slightest hint of the under coat. BUT try it out on a junker or a bit of plastic packaging first.
Think of it as extreme preshading....
Canopies are such fun to mask aren't they. NOT. If you thing the big one was fun, wait until you try the ittsy bitsy tiny one.....lol.
I hope the idea for the pre-shade works, and let us know how the test went.
Ian M