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Priming with gesso
Topic Started: 19th April 2006 - 04:20 AM (268 Views)
Plessiez
Only UnderEmpire member to never play a game of 6th Edition
Hey, I thought I'd share a trick with you guys that I've just started using.

I hate using spray primer - where I live its eithers too humid, too arid, too hot or too windy. Plus I find spray primer either obscures detail too much or does the opposite and you spend a bunch of time filling in all the little silver gaps with a brush afterwards.

So I brush prime - it's slow but reliable. Until recently I used chaos black as a basecoat which is expensive and is also easy to obscure detail with if you're not careful about exactly how much you apply where - especially on things like tails which tend to fill in quite easily.

I've started priming with black gesso now. Gesso can be found at art supply stores and is a water based primer used by artists on canvas or wood surfaces. It's cheap too. I got a tub which could be used to last me my entire lifetime of mini painting for about $6

It's thick - very thick - like glue or paste and when you first look at it you can't imagine putting it anywhere near a miniature. The interesting thing though is that when it dries it shrinks amazingly to really hug the miniature and what looked like a thick gloopy mess suddenly has a crisp smooth undercoat.

This guy posted some nice pics of gesso both wet and dry to show what I'm talking about. Gesso photos

Some tips though:

1. Dilute it a little but not too much. Don't try and make it like paint or milk. Dilute it enough that it seems more liquid and won't stand up on its own any more.

2. Use a stiff brush. You have to make sure you poke and stab the gesso into all the crevices of the mini or when it dries and shrinks it might leave little gaps

3. Give it plenty of time to dry. The folklore I've read about priming with gesso seems to suggest leaving it about 24 hours to dry. I'm not sure whether that's really necessary or not but I think that vigorous dry-brushing over gesso that hasn't dried properly can cause it to rub off.

Anyway, I hope that's useful to some of you out there who brush-prime and want a cheap easy solution.

- Plessiez
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Bassik Dwarveripper
Unregistered

It looks a bit too grey...

I allways prime my models with a brief chaos black spray first, and then improve it and do the left out area's (don't you hate it when you pick up your primed model and see metal sticking out everywhere?) by hand.
I tried many other undercoat techniques, but I found this give me the highest quality result, even if its more work.
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Plessiez
Only UnderEmpire member to never play a game of 6th Edition
Bassik Dwarveripper
Apr 19 2006, 08:16 PM
It looks a bit too grey...



That's because he's using grey gesso :) I use black and its as black as chaos black.

What you've described is exactly why I don't spray-prime. By the time you've primed and then gone over everything a second time I find it quicker just to have brushed the whole thing to start with. But each to their own of course.
:)
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