"Gesso and enamels" Topic

Hi All

Fed up with spray primer for many of the reasons cited hereabouts … intrigued by what I have read about gesso … I paint with enamels, so I'm wondering if gesso would be a suitable primer for my as yet unprimed metal, plastic and resin miniatures …

Informed opinion most welcome ;-)

Paul

I don't see any reason why not, since the real purpose of gesso is to prime canvas to prevent oil paints from rotting it. I'd experiment first to make sure though…

Damon.

If you want to obscure details on your figures, then use gesso. Frankly, I'd use matt white or matt black enamel – still my base coats of choice after over 30 years, even though I've switched to acrylics for the main paints, because they put only a thin coat of paint over the figure and key well enough to the embedded talc in most metal castings.

There have been a number of TMP threads about gesso. I have switched to gesso after using white/black enamel for years.

I usually mix in some acrylic colour to the white gesso and I find it works very well – shrinks to smoothly (almost a glass like surface) coat the figure. I have not had any bad experience as yet – for me it actually highlights the detail and makes it easier to paint.

I still use humbrol black over the gesso as a base for metal, ie spearpoints and helmets as well as armour.

My experience is limited to 28mm figures.

I've never had an problem with gesso obscuring detail on figures. But perhaps some brands that are available in the UK have this problem.