Hi Stick-
I'll stand with those who recommend priming, for a few good reasons.
Even if you have the version of this kit in which most of the sprues are grey, the hull will still be black. It's very hard, and takes a lot of paint to cover black with another color, and have the applied paint color look the same as it would if it were applied over grey.
To maintain continuity of colors, it's a smart choice to have a consistent base color...for example, if you paint brown paint over a red plastic sprue part, the brown will look different than the same paint over a black sprue part, or a blue sprue part, etc.
Especially for the hull, if you are using a lighter-colored paint for the below waterline (I used a light grey) it won't be very light over black plastic without applying a ton of it, and even then it would probably be super blotchy.
My Soleil Royal was the version made of several colors of sprues (red, blue, brown, with black hull halves)....I actually went though and primered every sprue (and there are many!) to get an even base color. It took a few cans of Tamiya Fine Grey Primer. Gun ports are a good example: They are painted wood, and the hull is painted wood, but the ports were on the red sprues, and the hull was black...they would not look the same without a primer base.
Just my (long-winded) opinion....I hope you enjoy the project as much as I did! And please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to help! Here's the address to my previous WIP thread for it, if it helps in any way.
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/163550.aspx?sortorder=desc&page=19
Many thanks to Bill for the kind words...I'm humbled. :)
Dave
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Current Project: Imai/ERTL Spanish Galleon #2
Recently Finished: Revell 1/96 Cutty Sark
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