Painting the underside of armor

Tony Greenland in his book Panzer Modelling Masterclass recommends painting the entire area below the sponsons in a darker shade of the basic color, and then weathering over that. His reasoning is that this area is less exposed to sunlight and boot tracks, so is less lightened by wear.

The only reason I would paint underside is if you are competing. It's details like this that make the difference in a competition. Generally in a diorama, if it's muddy go mud, dusty go dusty. Paint your basic color and leave it like that if you are not dioramaing.

I would not worry if I knew that the finished model's underside could not be seen at all. However, many times in show, you'll see an amazing model, then you look closer and you notice an unpainted underside, with a shiny plastic showing through... That kills! (well I think anyway). Even if I do not do the whole 9 yards, spending time and care with washes and drybrusing, I always paint the underside, just in case.

I saw a model tank that had mud splatter on the bottom...not just teh same color as the dirt, but it was in a diorama, and the guy had actually made some mud to throw on the bottom of the tank..sealed it somehow to make it look wet...

It looked cool as, well I'm not sure how people feel about cussing here...so I'll leave it as cool.

I dont know that I`m any more experienced but, that is the way I do it. If I cant see it, I dont worry about it.