"Priming and Painting Aircraft Black?" Topic

I have quite a few RAF bombers and some fighters, as well as some of their Luftwaffe opponents to paint up, and many of the schemes call for their undersides, if not the entire aircraft in black. I'll be painting 1/300th and 1/600th scale planes, so thought I'd ask those that may have already done it, what's the best way to go about it?

Flat black primer, followed by flat black paint seems like a logical answer, though I'm not sure both would really be required, but perhaps they are for an enduring finish.

Seems like masking the non-black portions would be a good idea, then priming/painting black, and finally hand-painting the other colors on, once the black is dry.

So, just curious to see what you all have done, since I'm hoping to do a good batch of them in assembly-line fashion.

Also, curious about if you took any steps to paint locations where national insignia might go over the black, so they don't show up too dark, e.g. using white paint, blank white decals, etc. to help with that?

I prefer to paint them a very dark grey, and then give a couple of coats of black ink to get some depth rather than a flat colour.

I undercoat everything white to start with. Then use a thin black coat over the entire model.
Paint the cam/other colours.
Apply Wash (if being used)
Touch up the black
Highlight the black areas with a 2:1 Black Grey/Black Mix.
Gloss Varnish everything
Apply decals
Gloss varnish over the decals
Dullcote as necessary

I spray the whole thing in matt black then overspray with satin varnish. I then paint in the non-black bits before lightly re-spraying satin varnish over the top.

Seems to work OK.

Spray primer
Spray flat black.
Paint the other colors
Dip in Future/Kleer floorwax
Wash with a minimal amount of grey ink
Decal
Dip in Future/Kleer floorwax
Note: I think Dom's use of dark grey and black ink wash is better but I cant find a spray can which is dark enough and am not painting them by hand. I like gloss miniatures so leave them in gloss. The second coat of Future is to protect the decals. For some reason the use of flat black seems to work better with the Future than painting with gloss black.

Another vote for dark grey – pure black just doesn't look right.

I still paint black over the black primer usually as the primer can get easily dinged, but a layer or acrylic helps to protect it a bit. If the pure black doesn't look right, you can drybrush it.

It depends on whether you're going for realistic, or for strong colors.

For realistic: prime gray, and then paint a dark gray with black wash.

You don't want it black-black, because of the Distance Effect -- basically, the farther away something is, the more gray enters the color.

A slightly more detailed take here: link

I was leaning towards a very dark brown for the undersides of Lancasters, working with the not-quite-so-dark brown on the topside. It came to me while looking at the restored Halifax at CFB Trenton, which is in the same scheme.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

I appreciate them.