"Not buying brushes from miniatures companies anymore." Topic

Companies like GW and Army Painter make some very nice brushes and charge a premium for them. Any one brush is £5.00 GBP at minimum and GW especially gets very pricey with their top brush costing £22.00 GBP

I've come to the conclusion that what I really need for 95% of painting in 28mm is a nice fine tip on the bristles which flattens and frays with use. Dry brushes especially take a beating and wear out quickly.

I've made two brush purchases on Amazon recently that I'm very happy with linked below. Firstly, I picked up 50 size O brushes for £20.00 GBP and four makeup brushes perfect for dry brushing for £3.00 GBP I'm going to Amazon for brushes from now on. Far better deals there and I can move on to a nice new brush as soon as the old one gets a bit frayed.

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Cheers for that, I have also found that the brushes you mention do not las that long, so have just gone the Amazon route,

Tally Ho!

GW and Army Painter don't actually "make" the brushes themselves. They buy them in, add company logos etc then add a hefty premium before listing them. So often the brushes you buy from Amazon can be from the same manufacturer that supplies GW etc but a lot cheaper.

DBDD

Support your local craft store for brushes and paints. Craft paints can be bought in large bottles and work fine for basing and terrain. I'm even using them on my minis.

Even good brushes are better bought at a craft store than a game company.

Craft paints

Craft paint is not miniature paint. Pigment particles are too large and it is way too thick and the medium breaks down easily when thinned.

Get a good miniature paint and you'll be happier.

For brushes Winsor & Newton, Raphael or Rosemary & Co. The rest comes down to availability.

After somewhere around 50 years in this hobby, I am quite aware of when I can and cannot use craft paints on miniatures. For example, they work well, in some cases, as a base coat.

Generally, I use craft paints for basing and terrain. Given the amount of paint required it is crazy to buy miniatures paints, given the price differential.

I was using Reaper for a long time till recently. Not sure if they quit making certain sizes, or just can't source them, but they had not had the sizes I use for a few months. Mine were about done so I ordered some from Blick, they took a long time to get , back orders, etc. So this last time I went with Rosemary. I got them all in one shipment, quickly, and they are excellent brushes at a good price point.

I've found that proper brush care can make any brush last for a long time. I've had great results with Army Painter brushes by keeping them clean and using a brush preserver. I can't stand synthetic brushes. Natural hair brushes can be shaped and trained to keep a point. I use "The Masters" Brush Cleaner.

Brush Cleaner: link

I just started using the makeup brushes for dry brushing recently. Just like the Army painter dry brush set only 1/4 of the price from a local drug store!

I usually buy my brushes at the craft stores. Sometimes, I reward myself by getting an expensive brush from Meininger's, a local art store, where folks like Frederick Remington once shopped, when they were in the field and didn't have access to the fancy art stores in New York or Philadelphia. There is something to be said for traditions.

Grelber

+1 Cormac Mac Art.

Cheap makeup brushes from Walgreens are superb for weathering with oil paints

I'm with Altar Boy, xLAVAx, and Cormac Mac Art. I mostly use Windsor & Newton for base coats and detail, but I also have some Citadel brushes that my wife gave me about 10 years ago that are still in great shape.

I have several old brushes -- my own and some inherited from my mother-in-law, who was an oil painter -- that work fine for dry brushing.

Most of my work is 25-ish mm, using acrylic paint.

Thanks for the good idea on make-up brushes. I have a few (cast-offs of my step-daughter years ago) that I haven't put to any use.

When you are buying brushes from companies like GW, you really are paying for the logo, but also convenience. \

That being said, I buy cheap craft brushes, and churn through them, tossing them or demoting them when they start to wear out. I am aware of W&N high end brushes…but for most of what I do they are not necessary, since I am churning out armies, not small objects of art. I appreciate people that do that sort of thing, but it's not what I want to get out of the hobby.

Damon.

As long as the local game shop stocks paint and brushes, I'll try to work with them. When I have to go on line--well, no, I won't. I'll support the art supply shops rather than Amazon.

With more than 45 years in painting tabletop/rpg miniatures I have a few observations:

1. ) Use "craft paint" at your own risk. As someone else stated the pigments are too large and frankly the adhesion is not long-lived for anything but maybe display purposes.
2. ) Purchase brushes for the purpose you will use them for – if you are drybrushing with a brand new brush, well, let's just say you'll figure it out over time – we hope… otherwise purchase a brush designed just for that purpose – AK-Interactive makes a drybrush and their flat brushes work reasonably well for this purpose as well. You don't have to mash them on the paper to get the paint out either.
3. ) Speaking of brushes, Winsor & Newton are fine, so are some of the other brands, but I have come to prefer Abteilung 502, AK-Interactive (same company), and Reaper's Master Series brushes for the sizes I can't get in AK Synthetics (smaller than 5/0 and greater than 2 round).
4. ) In the end, I use an airbrush whenever I can, I have 5 or 6 Aztecs (no longer available as far as I know and I miss them – best model airbrush ever released imo), but I am thinking about purchasing a Reaper Vex Airbrush (basically a custom Badger similar to the Renegade).

Ultimately you get what you pay for and that holds true with miniature painting as well. You don't need super high-dollar equipment, but you do need quality equipment, and that won't be 99 cent craft brushes or bottles of paint.

Just my .02 cents worth on the subject.

In the UK, I get my brushes from Rosemary & Co.

For details – see this link; rosemaryandco.com

make any brush last for a long time.

Not in my experience. There are brushes that are crap from the start once they get wet and they're only capable of some base painting before they start to fray and curl. Not 50% even but there are brushes that look good but aren't, case in point I have a GW one that is doing this right now.

I generally use W&N brushes, they hold a point and last for years/decades. Cheaper brushes for dry brushing.

Ymmv with craft paints. I also use them for basing, along with match pots of emulsion. For some odd reason almost my entire collection of 1940 BEF armour is done in craft paint, as are the jackets of my Bavarians. Best colour matches for mid khaki green, dark khaki green and cornflower blue I could find.

I get good results using cheap crap brushes, even ones where the hairs are separating and don't come to a point. It's not the brushes, it's the guy behind them that makes the difference.

I've given up on GW and Army Painter brushes. No matter how nicely I treat them, they lose hairs, curl, and separate into spikes.

I took a chance on some Rosemary brushes from Michigan Toy Soldier – I bought them at Historicon. So far they are working out well, and I plan to order some more from them.

So which range of Rosemary and co brushes work best for miniatures painting? The number of options in the acrylics listing alone is bewildering….

If your synthetic brush tip curls dip it in boiling water. If it is otherwise OK it will straighten the bristles almost immediately. Plastics have "muscle memory".

I like a little curl – I can make thin or slightly broader strokes with a micro muscle adjustment. Fraying and splitting I can't handle.

I'm finding real cheep brushes are shaped like a brush. There is a very long hair in the middle then shorter hairs around the outside. Yes there's a point but it splits fairly quickly as there are no other fibers to self maintain its integrity.

Phil Bagnall; Rosemary 33's are the best sable brushes for most purposes. 323's if you want shorter fatter shape more suitable for "pointing" rather than brush strokes.