When it Rains, Pour Gesso on your Minis!

In hindsight, I suppose winter was a bad time to get back into miniature gaming, and subsequently, miniature painting because of the challenges wet and cold weather presents to one of the main steps in painting process: priming. This is only a problem though when you use spray primer on your minis. I guess there is some sort of science involved in (ideally) only using spray primer when it is not too hot or not too cold or not to wet; I don't know what the science is, I just don't argue anymore after once priming my minis in less that ideal conditions and finding rough and unpaintable minis in my hands. I'm glad I found an alternative to spray primers for cold and wet San Fran Bay Area weather...

The product is called Gesso, and is used for priming and sizing a canvas for painting. You just slap it on your mini with a brush in huge amounts; I've never had to thin the Gesso (with water) and just use it directly from the jar (after some vigorous shaking). YMVV though, so try it out on a test mini first before you use it on a mini you really like. No matter how much Gesso you put on, it seems like it shrinks down a lot and keeps all the details on the mini and dries smooth too... It's just amazing! You may experience certain parts of the mini exposed after applying Gesso (because of shrinkage), it's no big deal, I just touch it up with more. I picked up a huge 16oz Bob Ross Black Gesso and a Liquitex White Gesso from Michael's (they were out of stock of Liquitex Black otherwise I probably would've gotten that... but am happy with the Bob Ross brand, so it worked out better in the end). Liquitex even has Clear Gesso which I haven't tried.

I primed my Dire Maul Troll, Kriel Stone Scribes and pDoomshaper this way. Wish I took pics to show you.