I am worried if I try to prime my ships first I will loose detail. I am considering just painting them and then sealing the squads after. Has anyone else tried this?

Primer for miniatures is usually designed to be thin so unless you apply ridiculous amounts of it, the details will be fine

I didn't prime at all and so far no issues.

No priming here..

I decided to prime my models. I was just careful when sprayed. They turned out great. I didn't loose any detail. I used the P3 white primer.

Not really necessary to prime, just basecoat them the colour you want. The plastic holds paint quite well without a prime (and if you really have to use an airbrush for a thin coat.)

Use Duplicolor White Sandable Automotive. It's what many, many professional mini painters use. I get amazing use out of it. Goes on incredinly thin, very inexpensive too. IIRC a number of gaming company primers are that stuff rebranded.

my Imperial method is a drybrush of silver over the bare plastic, wash with Army Painter Dark Tone, then drybrush back up with grey. Then black out the panels. Seems to have worked ok!

Duplicolor Sandable Auto is pure magic. I can't get white here, though, so I'm confined to black and gray basecoats.

You won't lose any detail. On the other hand, considering the soft plastic medium and the likelihood that the same three fighters will stay in the same base for long periods of time, you probably also won't lose paint to frequent handling/poor adhesion. Just try to move the squadron by holding the base as often as you can.

I prime everything, but it's just because I'm persnickety.