Gesso

By Cookie Monster. 27/04/12, 05:19 am

Has anyone used it? I'm looking at it as a solution to smooth out ridges on the surface large amounts of cardboard.
Is there anything better (or cheaper)?

By Icarus. 27/04/12, 06:16 am

Gesso is difficult to get smooth even with the finest brush as it's made to give texture (this I found out the hard way OTL)

Depending on how deep the ridges are (if they're straight up holes) then cement wall fill is a god sent! Just use something like a piece of glossy cardboard and smear it over then sand. This stuff sands fantastically cause it dries brittle.
Afterwards I used Impasto mixed with PVA glue to seal and fill in whatever tiny holes left over (you'll need quite a layers if the holes are too deep.)

Impasto, gesso and modelling paste are all for texturising, so you can use any of these (you can get a good 500ml of any of them from Uncle Bill's for a reasonable price.) I think modelling paste just has more marble dust(?) in it than gesso, while impasto is lighter than the rest and dries a little more transparent, and smells.
They all dry rubbery, I've only mixed PVA glue with the impasto so not sure how the others will work out. Butyeah, when you water it down with cheap glue then it sorta brings down the cost haha

By **seraphik**. 27/04/12, 08:06 pm

i used to use gesso to seal foam pieces because it immediately gave you a plain white coat to paint over, but as icarus said it's really difficult to get smooth, if you can at all. ):

By Static. 28/04/12, 03:57 am

You can also sand gesso, but it's not the strongest substance in the world. If you're after something cheap, that doesn't need to be super strong, it should be fine!

By Cookie Monster. 02/05/12, 05:51 pm

Plaster is kinda out of the question: it soon gets heavy once you build it up and coat it to stop it from cracking - I want to avoid another 50+kg suit armour.

But now I'm having a few doubts about Gesso ; FAS recommended adding a little water to their Gesso on their website for smoothing, but it you have to apply with a brush (bristle strokes.. eww!!) I'm not too keen, as I was planning to use a putter knife and metal scraper.

But I'll have play with Modelling Paste and Impasto and see if either one achieves a desirable result.

Thanks for the advice.

By steffish. 03/05/12, 09:57 am

I'm keen to hear how your experiments go, since I was also going to ask about using gesso on cardboard until you did it for me!

By Cookie Monster. 06/05/12, 07:34 am

I picked up a pot of Gesso at this "Uncles Bills" for $8.50... about half the price of what they were selling them at Warehouse Stationary.

It's going alot better than what I expected it seem that it'll go along way as well.

I've only done 2 coats (I only started today!) as it takes a while to completely dry. I also smooth off each coat with a metal dough scraper:

Spoiler:

And use the run off/excess from the scraper on other areas.

Theory is 4-5 coats (letting it completely dry in between) to build up with good coverage, sand down and 1-2 coats to seal and smooth off, if needed (panel beating anyone?).

P.S. You can try looking in kitchen stores for a dough scraper.

By Pura. 06/05/12, 03:22 pm

I used to use gesso in art, haha. I find a good way so smooth it out is using your finger Razz

I've used it for cosplay and it's always worked fine for me, but then it wasn't that noticeable on a weapon so armour might be different.

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