"How much are your brushes?" Topic

10 years since I joined the hobby, I found that painting takes a lot of my time, compared to gaming. I'm increasingly looking for better paints and brushes, but little progress has been made in my painting skill. I now use a model pen made in Japan, about $10 USD each, 3/0#, 0#, and 1#. There is another larger one for dry brush.

Taking care of these brushes also took me a lot of time. Now I realize one thing, if I don't have such good painting skill and don't need to paint my army perfectly, I can use some cheap tools.

How much do you spend on your brushes?

It really depends on what I am painting.
Figures, I use good brushes, such as a Windsor and Newton Series 7 which can cost $14 USDCDN on sale or more retail. (Because this is a US website and the Editor has left this feature on, every time I put in Canadian Dollars it will insert US dollars)
If I am painting terrain, dollar store 1 to 2 dollar brushes will suffice.
If I am dry brushing, which can destroy a brush fairly quickly then the cheap variety will suffice.

I typically only use Windsor Newton Series 7 in various sizes.
Last time I bought them in bulk and I think I paid $10 USD-11 each.
Worth every cent.
The one I'm using now must be well over two years old and still has a solid point.

Windsor Newton 7 is really cheap there. In China it's about 17~18 USD

For proper painting I wouldn't want to use anything other than Windsor and Newton series 7 (worth every penny). For dry brushing I have some Humbrol goat mops. I use cheap brushes for varnishing – I'm replacing some which cost 50p (and shed hairs) with nylon brushes from a stand at the IPMS show at Telford last weekend at £1.00 GBP each.

The way I paint, I use cheap brushes from Michael's. Work OK for me & I don't feel bad if I need to toss them after a year.

I use the Windsor & Newton University series (red handle), #233, 235, and 237 brushes for the most part. They run between $4 USD and $8.00 USD typically, depending on the size. They last anything from about eight weeks to years, depending on what I am working on. I don't spend a lot of time taking care of brushes, as my view is that brushes are disposable, and it is not cost-effective to spend a disproportionate amount of time preserving a $4.00 USD brush.

Q-tips mostly, but for detail I use my testers brushes:
link

There are very good and even superior alternatives to Winsor Newton; DaVinci, Raphael and Rosemary. All are Kosinski sables and all of them are capable of holding a good point for a long time as long as you take care of them. My personal favorite is DaVinci. These are pretty much only used for final details, shading and highlighting. Cheaper brushes are generally used for the initial base oats and dry brushing. For terrain it's cheap brushes and the airbrush.

I don't buy the best, but I pay about $4 USD/brush – I use a lot 5/0 and 10/0 brushes painting 15s.

While costs certainly need to be considered. The lifespan of the good Kolinsky sable brushes will likely end up as a cost savings in the long haul. With my DaVinci brushes I don't use anything smaller than a 0 and a 1 is my workhorse. This includes working on my 15s, in fact, I paint faster because the belly of a #1 holds considerably more paint than a 3/0 or 5/0 brush.

I have a range from around £3.00 GBP to £8.00 GBP I hand selected a batch of mid price £5.00 GBP-6 jobs, made by one of the major brands but very quickly they have all turned out to be rubbish. I'll never buy that brand again. About half the cheaper sable brushes I buy hold as good a point as the most expensive ones.

I choose brushes that have long thin points for the reason Heisler mentions – they hold more paint. There's no need to scratch away at a figure with a tiny brush that doesn't hold enough paint.

I prefer Kosinski sable brushes, but since Dick Blick discontinued their Master Kolinsky brushes I've been a bit in the wilderness. I've gotten some dent performance out of some of the Army Painter brushes. The mid-sized brushes, not the "insane detail" brushes.

Mostly I use W&N S7 size 0, 1 and 2. Drybrushes are old GW or other nylon brushes I acquired over time at conventions or as gifts.

I get my brushes from Hobby Lobby: think they are called masters touch. They run around $4 USD but regularly go on sale for 40% off.

W&N University and some Citadel brushes I got as a gift. They last through many paintings. When they get old, they become dry brush brushes. I have a lot of dry brush brushes now!

I use Rosemary&co series 33 pure kolinsky, with the exchange rate they come out to about $5 USD a brush. I bought the six smallest brushes, but so far I haven't needed to use the smallest two, since the points are fine enough on the larger ones. They're leaps and bounds better than most brushes I've used, but I can't comment on how they compare to W&N since I've never owned any.

Hobby store approx $3 USD 5/0s. Last reasonably well – over a year average. Trying to maintain a 100+ figure a month rate.

Got a fancier 10/0 ($7) for detail that isn't doing a great job on holding a point.

I quite like those yellow/black handle cornel brushes from Pauls.

Bought a back to back set of Army Painter brushes and they were garbage. Games workshop were WORSE.

I read a suggestion on Leadadventureforum.com to look at brushes for manicures on Aliexpress. So I bought about 25 brushes for US$ 20.00, including p & p. Marvellous for small things like belts for packs etcetera. After a few months of use (I paint every day) they will have lost their point, so I throw them away. Use quality brushes (kolinski for instance) for the rest, but using the cheap manicure brushes saves the more expensive brushes.

I use W&N for my 25's detail work, shading and faces. I still have some Armory brushes and I also use some Grumbacher brushes I get a Michaels for the major areas. For dry brushing I use an eye shadow brush made by Elf. They cost $1.00 USD at Walmart in the cosmetics section. As a past middle age man I do get some sideways glances from teen age girls when I'm picking them out.

I use Rosemary&co series 33 pure kolinsky….

I bought some of these along with my first W+N #7 brushes. They are both high quality brushes but I will have to give the edge to W+N. I found the Rosemary brushes just a tad too long. Nevertheless, I will only use one of these brushes for all my mini painting.

But just as important is good brush care. I bought a cake of "The Masters" soap which is indispensable for painting, IMHO.

And to put this all in perspective, a local gaming store owner who is a masterful painter only uses Taclon brushes. His work is breathtaking! Sometimes it's not just the tools.