Or going straight to the base coat? I have white prime but it seems foolish to cover them in white first.

I use a black primer, then dark metal for the panels and then black ink.

It'll take me a few days to get a black prime, hence my wondering if I can proceed now of if I have to wait. There's so many TIE fighters to paint...

I plan on priming grey and filling in the panels with black, doing it with black primer just seems so backwards.

I just sprayed them black, drybrushed grey. touched up the panels.

You need to prime models to do a proper job. Otherwise the paint will either rub or flake off with ease.

Primer is vital for long term handling, otherwise the paint might rub off.

Mine are primed black then airbrushed grey for imperials and white for rebels.

I haven't been priming mine, but I do varnish afterwords. So far I haven't had any problems. I suppose time will tell. If they were a bigger model things would be different but because they are so small it seems like an excessive amount of paint and to many chances to lose detail.

Don't bother priming them, it's unnecessary unless you can do it quickly and thinly with an airbrush.

Depends on what you value more: little better quality, or less time required.

It is a little harder to paint on top of the base grey plastic, but it does save the time of having to spray paint (and another layer if you don't have the proper spray primer color). I wanted to save time, so I started with the plastic grey and worked up from there, some washing, some layering. Note that there are area's where the paint isn't sticking very well, so I just had to go over it a couple times. Plus I figure if the paint rubs/flakes off a bit in places, it won't look horrible since the base layer is grey, and the models are tiny. To each his own. After going through a ton of Ties, I have no regrets skipping a few steps (including trying to freehand the inboard wing panels with grey lines).

I just spraypainted mine with a cheap black spraypaint.

Is there something special about a black primer that will be better for the paintjobs?

Yes, true primers absorb into the plastic a bit instead of just adsorbing to it. It won't flake off.

I didn't use any primer on mine, and I haven't had any problems. Of course, I'm the first to admit that mine aren't quite as nicely done as many of the others I've seen. I just turned the wing panels, window and the aperture at the back black, painted the framing on the wings light gray, and dry brushed the hull, leaving the base color to creat shadows and texture. The illusion works, and it let me paint 48 fighters in around 5-6 hours. In the end, I guess it depends on how nice a job you want on the minis. Are you satisfied with a good illusion, or do you want them to look really good even under really close examination?

I just spraypainted mine with a cheap black spraypaint.

Is there something special about a black primer that will be better for the paintjobs?

Yes, but I don't know if you will notice on this small of models. The primer is thicker and is made to bond to the model. And it gives your paint something to stick onto so it last longer.

I am going to prime mine this weekend. And I don't want to risk the paint coming off. So I am going to fork out the $ for GW primer. I know its expensive compared to other primers and these models are small. But I want to make sure the paint job last since I will be playing with the models for a long time

Just get Krylon Fusion Matte Black. It's 1/4 the price and works better. Walmart/Canadian Tire, pretty much anywhere.