How to paint a body in matte black?

Just out of curiosity, how would one do this? Would you still need to polish the paint after all the coats? Would you still need to clear it?

When I did it I used Matt Black spray can from Tamiya. I did not use clear coat.

Did you polish it smooth afterwards?

If you polish it afterwards it will turn glossy.

I see. So the best way to do it is to get it smooth straight from the can without orange peel. Thanks guys.

If you do find you get orange peel to a level you're not happy with, you can just polish it out (to maybe about 1800 grit) and then use several mist coats of flat clear coat over the top. Any peel from it will be much less visible.

what i did was use tamiya white primer first then i use tamiya matt black.

The finish is pretty smooth and gives a nice mild shine

http://viptrim.com/newer/gt22.jpg

Make sure your primer is smooth, and then use fast drying paint, like Zero, or similar.

It depends if you want a matt black old Ford, or a matt black new supercar, which they seem to be doing these days. I've seen a couple of these in the flesh - an DBS and a Bentley - and I can confirm a "slight shine" is what you want. The paint is incredibly smooth even in 1:1 scale, without the slightest hint of "greyness" (bloom or light-scatter), like you might get with a regular paint that has been "weathered". Neither was really "dead black" either - the Aston had hints of gold and green, the Bentley was more blue. I suspect that they are actually REALLY expensive finishes... I think if I were doing it, I'd paint a gloss black basecoat, which was smoothed and finished normally, give it a light overcoat with one of Alclad's "colour change" lacquers, and then hit it with a flat-coat...

bestest,
M.