Gesso what!

As the weather steadily worsens into full blown winter I'm finding that there are fewer opportunities for getting outside and spray priming figures. And there's nothing worse than having time to paint but nothing primed. So I thought I'd give this stuff a go:

I'd read good things about Gesso on TMP and the tub you see above was only £5.99, so no big loss if it didn't work. However, I can say that I'm pretty happy with the result. The undercoat is pretty tough (you can handle the figure without worrying about exposing metal) and provides a really good key for the paint. It is quite thick, though, so you may want to take care with finely detailed figures. I haven't tried thinning it yet, so can't advise if that's an option. And needless to say, the amount I got will cover a lot of figures, so it's cheaper than spray paint, too. It's available in black or white, so if anyone finds themselves in the same priming predicament then I can recommend giving Gesso a go!