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AH! I've discovered something! It was quite by accident, but worthy of sharing.
I was gonna paint Gus today. Before doing this, though, I wanted to take photos of him in his underwear (Gesso). Sadly, thanks to the strong light, I discovered some major pit in the most conspicuous places -- his face. Namely, joins where clay meets the head. Drat! So I figgered, maybe I can fill these with a fine brush and gesso, applied only into the crevice. This works, but it takes a very steady hand.
What you do is load up your brush, then start just outside the pit/crevice, and draw lighty over the pit forming a smooth join. Draw ONCE! Painting over it again will result in having to start over. You can, however, feather the edges if you avoid the pit.
Now here's where it gets really good. After you've feathered with the brush, take a damp (almost dry) paper towel, and wipe away any excess. Bingo! You've filled microscopic pits!
So, this led me to try something else. I put gesso on the paper towel, and polished places that were only slightly rough (brush strokes show a little). BINGO! This works too! Just don't apply a lot of pressure when rubbing in the gesso, and you'll be fine.
This does not work for valleys and major craters. As much as I'd like Gus perfect, I've come to realize that I'm not gonna be able to make him look like bisque. But I have managed to fill very conspicuous pits in conspicuous places, and smoothed even further places that I want a as smooth as possible (namely, his bald head, which has already been sanded with 320 grit paper).
Try it! Fill conspicuous pits by rounding using the brush. Fill minor rough spots by polishing (for lack of a better word) with gesso on a paper towel. These work within limits, and you'll be pleased with the results.
Oh. One other thing. If when filling a pit/crevice with the brush and you screw it up, just wipe it all away and start over.
The work I did should be dry in about 2 hours (thanks to applying gentle heat with a space heater/blower). I'll sand a little bit more with the 320, then I'm ready to paint. Woot woot! Yippee and all that cowboy stuff! 
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Charlotte
If you know anyone who travels from Nottingham to the Great Yarmouth/Lowestoft area, I could give them a kilo of high quality ground chalk for you at zero cost.
DavidO
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Thanks David, if I can find anyone I will let you know.
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I was interested in this thread, having tried many times to find the ideal gesso formula. It stimulated me to try again and this time I found a recipe which works absolutely perfectly for me, and might also for others.
There are three ingredients - good quality ground chalk, acrylic resin primer and undercoat combined, PVA (sorry, girls, but it's really necessary). I mix an equal volume of each. It not only bonds the PM surface (even slightly fibrous types) but fills minor unevenness, sands very well, is hard and presents an excellent base for painting.
In UK, the paint I find best is Rustin's Primer and Undercoat for wood. I have been using grey simply because that is what I had on the shelf but will use white where it is better for the final colours.
Despite really good mixing, I still get tiny pimples of white chalk but these easily sand away, leaving a surface as smooth as silk. Sensuous, ain't it?
DavidO
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Building PM and finishing PM are two different things, David.
I have no issue with using it for surfacing the PM, just building with it.
I'll have to look for that acrylic resin primer/undercoat.
Sue
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Paints are unlikely to be declared as acrylic resin based. It is likely that if it is a water soluble primer/undercoat it will be suitable. I think the fact that it can be undercoat as well simply means that there is a greater content of titanium white, which is good.
I only found what the base was by going to the firm's website and looking up the technical information.
It will be interesting to learn what paint you find suitable in the backwoods there!! 
DavidO
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"It will be interesting to learn what paint you find suitable in the backwoods there!!"
Here in Lower Podunk, WA, if I want dry cellulose wallpaper paste, I have to have them special order it for me!
So, I'm going to assume that water-based acrylic wall paint is the thing to use. That was what I suspected, but I was waiting for the cart that holds the paint-mixing mistakes to have something lighter in color than the usual forest green or kitty vomit brown.
Thank you for posting your research!
Sue
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