I Converted to Gesso

[gary42]

I thought it was to get a nice base with enough tooth to bind the paint you intend to add later and get a colour consistency as well as to prevent paint peeling of bare metal.  I guess I'm the guy who's had good luck with it:)

Whatever works boys!:)

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

I've always thought of Gesso as something you lay on with a trowel. Is this something for vehicles and terrain only or can you use it on figures w/o obscuring the details?

[throwsFireball]

I've always thought of Gesso as something you lay on with a trowel. Is this something for vehicles and terrain only or can you use it on figures w/o obscuring the details?

There's a teeny tiny loss of detail, as the gesso "rounds out" the features a bit. It's minor, though, and I'm too shitty a painter to ever notice.

Example taken from a Dakka Dakka gesso guide:

[Vermis]

Same guide that got me to try gesso, when it was still hosted on Tinysoldiers or whatever it was called. Though it only seems to work with the black gesso I bought, and I don't blob it on quite as thick. The shrinking effect is still handy when you just want to scrub it on and not worry about thin layers, though.

[grant]

use Bob Ross as well works a treat

Plus all your trees are happy little trees.

[FramFramson]

There's a teeny tiny loss of detail, as the gesso "rounds out" the features a bit. It's minor, though, and I'm too shitty a painter to ever notice.

Example taken from a Dakka Dakka gesso guide:

Gesso should go on quite thin. I suspect you'll get rounded details if you take the advice to "Just glop it on" literally. Yes, gesso does shrink, but you should paint it on properly or it will pool and pile like any paint or primer if abused or applied lazily.

[Vermis]

Another reason to use gesso. Every time I look out the window and the sun is baking the earth and there are no clouds in sight, and I think 'ooh, good spraying weather', and get all me stuff gathered and prepared, within a minute of pressing the trigger, it starts to rain. Or a mini tornado blows in from somewhere. Or both, like five minutes ago. Never fails! I'm thinking of hiring myself out to drought areas.

[rebelyell2006]

You have to be careful in drought areas.  In mountain/desert and high plains areas, you'll get wind-blown dust in your wet paint if you spray-prime outside.  Luckily the humidity is so low that the gesso will dry five minutes or less.

[sundayhero]

I also used gesso on several metal minis (and even on 15mm, it doesn't hide details) but I found that it was not as sturdy as my usual cheap acrylic mate spray paint I'm using for priming usually. I can scratch the gesso coat with my nail, wich is something I cannot do with my spray paint coating.

Any other LAF member encountered the same behaviour ?

[FramFramson]

Yep.