Painting white figures

...and other models for that matter!

I'm currently participating in the Race Car Group Build, and want to use the Tamiya driver and co-driver figures in my car. Unfortunately, the Lancia racing overalls of the period are white.

As such, some advice on how to go about shading/highlighting white would be much appreciated. My thoughts at the moment are to make the base colour a very light grey and highlight with white, or to shade a white base with a very light blue.

Some tried-and-tested methods would be quite handy

Thanks