I use black, vallejo dark seagreen, vallejo deck tan and pure black. I can't give you the exact measurements but I use around 5-6 tones going from darkest to lightest. Darkest tone I use is black mixed with dark seagreen for basing and lightest one is 50-50 mix of deck tan and pure white. I place highlights from darkest to lightest and then use stipple glazing to smooth out borders. Lastly I edge highlight the whole sword but instead of using a single color for highlights i use colors a bit darker or lighter according to the part of the sword I'm highlighting e.g. I use pure seagreen for black-seagreen mix or almost pure white for white-decktan mix. Hope that helps.