To prime in black or white?

[Dunc2610]

Or at all? Subject matter is WW2 aircraft, just wondering what peoples usual process is? White, plus pre shading, black and post shade, nothing and straight in with the colour and build up in layers? 

[Mark Harmsworth]

Option three: grey. But I will use black primer for the undersurfaces of bombers (like the Lancaster I'm currently building). black gloss primer for metallics and white primer for yellow spinners etc. 

 

But mostly grey. And I never pre shade.

Mark

[Ade H]

Mark, if you never (very absolute there) pre-shade, do you inter-shade or post-shade? OPR? Not judging; just curious.

 

Dunc, to answer your question.

Um, I can't really answer it, because why would there be a single process?! Even those people who only paint DAK panzers or Spitfires would be seriously hampering their progression and creativity (if they have any...) if they really use just one process. It depends upon so many factors: top colours, intended finished appearance, subject and theatre, intended weathering process, etc. How long is a piece of string? "WW2 aircraft" is to say the least a very broad category, so it cannot possibly be treated with one mindset.

I could write a long essay... but I'm not going to. So I'll just give you two tips: avoid too much contrast between the base and top-coat colours so that whatever shading is needed will be easy to achieve; and never base white with grey because it is actually harder to cover than black.

[Ray_W]

I use a black undercoat for just about everything. I then build the colour coats on top. The term given to the process is black basing. Put down a marble and blend coat.  I really like the method for not only tonal variation but also textural variation. Very subtle effects that add life in a naked eye view of your models. Difficult to see in photos. My preferred base coat is Gunze Black Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500. Like Mark @Mark Harmsworth I will use white for yellow, orange, sometimes red. The latter dependent on what I want to achieve. I also use a gloss black under metallics. My favourite black gloss being Gunze GX002 Ueno Black.  The Gunze's are thinned with Mr Color Leveling Thinner.

 

The problem with black undercoats is the difficulty is spotting defects. So you will often find in my builds I am hitting the areas that usually give trouble with grey or white before a black undercoat.

 

I have tried at various times no undercoat, grey and white undercoats and have come to like the black a great deal. I am not a fan of panel line pre-shading unless the subject definitely portrays it. You can build this on a black base anyway. You can also experiment with other colours in your base coat.

 

As always, it is another technique in your modelling kit bag. It is certainly worth experimenting.

 

Ray