This may be an old question but I have spent the last hour or so looking at screen caps to get an answer. I have seen black and silver on both so I ask; what is the consensus on the mesh color? Is the large mesh or the small mesh black or silver?

It is a silver-ish tone, not like ROTJ though. It is not new mesh so to speak and has a worn look up close.

It does appear black in some scenes for sure, that is often an illusion, although it is very convincing.

I just tried the inner smaller mesh in black and the outer, larger mesh in silver. It looks pretty cool but like you said, some look black and some look silver.

Both mesh colours are the same.

My advice woud be if your mesh is silver to try and age and scuff it up, so it is dull.

The mesh is not all perfect as the movie shows.

The colour you should aim for is an off silver /grey colour. I hope that makes sense. You want to give the appearence that it is not bright as that will distract from what is seen on film, if you get it right you will find in some shots without flash of course, it could pass for black, hence the confusion of what you mentioned on the screen mesh.