Brushes

When I got back into painting miniatures several months ago, I did my best to make the financial leap with as much wisdom as possible. I am a master painter of 28mm historical minis. I did a not-so-wise thing by going to local craft hobby stores and purchasing synthetic brushes. Cheap, fast and good in the beginning, I found myself just waiting for these brushes to give out. I even washed them with a popular cleaner. Didn't make a difference. Around 5 or 6 uses, separation and curling inevitably occurred. While not useless, they were not enjoyable to use after a very short time. Despite spending $4 for a brush,I took a step up and invested in a well-known set of Kolinsky sables for around $22 ($3/brush). Much better but I noticed a paucity of actual hairs to their brushes and so, I found myself loading paint in the brush constantly. They did hold up well but, the paint did not go on smoothly. I finally stepped onto the luxury car lot of brushes and invested $12 in a Windsor Newton. There's no going back.They are perfectly shaped and thick. They seem to be impervious to loosing their original quality, especially since I take good care of them. A loaded brush holds so much paint, I find myself making smooth strokes with exceptional results, and reloading about 1/4th the time.I am slowly replacing my brushes with all Windsor Newtons. You will need less brushes overall since a #3 is more than sufficient to paint large areas AND all but the finest of details. An initial investment in 3 or 4 brushes is more than enough. By all means keep your old brushes for priming, washing, dry brushing, etc; but the real painting will be covered by your 3 Windsors.One thing to keep in mind is that you need to under estimate the size of the brushes you'll need. Explanation...while I used to be a big proponent of buying 5/0, 10/0 and even 20/0, all that is out-the-window now. You'll feel silly that you ever did that as a #2 (not 2/0) Windsor is a good place to start. This might seem large compared to what you're used to but, try it first and you'll see. I easily paint pupils with a #2. I purchased a 000 and found it to be minimally useful because the #1, 2 and 3's form a perfect point. This will SAVE you $$$. If you paint 10-15 hrs a week like many of us, you won't be looking for a new brush for at least a year, compared to buying new synthetics every month. Most importantly, painting will become more of a pleasure and your minis will look better. You'll paint faster and you'll dare to become better and try more feats of detail.So take a "$12 chance" on one brush. Start with a #2. You'll be able to do 98% of your painting with it. Then a 0, 1, and 3. I promise you'll wish you made the switch long ago.

started painting miniatures with just.. brushes. my brother got me some along with paints and what not to get started with warhammer.after a winter of painting, I decided to try a REAL brush. did some research. settled on the windsor 7 series.I. Love. These. Brushesended up getting 4 in different sizes. I wont paint without them now

These are by far the best brushes. These babies hold so much color/paint. I use these exclusively for watercolor and gouache. I would never imagine using these for anything else. I honestly don’t understand the bad reviews. They are meant to be completely loaded up with watercolor/paint and then you go at it. When you feel them run out of paint load back up. My series 7 number 3 is 3 years old and the number 4 I bought here on Amazon is just as great quality. You can compare them in the picture.I have many squirrel hair and sable hair brushes from other companies like escoda, silver, and da Vinci, that I’ve purchased over the years. WN series 7 has the best control of all of my brushes and holds so much more paint/water. I have never been a fan of pointy brushes so I love how perfectly round this brush is. I have an escoda size 10 and if I could afford a WN series 7 in a size 12 I would gladly switch over. WN does have a pointed version for inking but this is my favorite of all.When these brushes are completely dry the hairs do fray but when you load up with water they point back up. If you don’t want them to do that, then you can dip them in Gum Arabic when you are done using them.

I seriously can’t believe this brush is so bad. It won’t hold a tip at all. I’ve been sooooo careful with it too. No washes, no metallics, no paint in the ferrule. I cleaned it carefully after every use and it’s still almost completely unusable after just a few paintings.

Great brush quality. I am able to paint Space Marine lenses with the proper amount of paint loaded, with the proper tip of the brush required. That's really all I use this size brush for.