"Have You Ever Painted The Bristles Off A Brush Before?" Topic

It has been a busy summer.
I vowed to clear some table spce for other projects and the long summer daylight makes my painting with bad vision easier.

So, I really got busy painting my 28mms. First about a hundred odd ISIS. This lot was easy, black overdresses and head coverings and then detail the pants and bits. Then It was a company of East German motor Rifle troops and their support weapons. A platoon of Polish motor rifle troops. And lastly a company of Soviet motor rifle troops and support weapons.

My vision messes up my painting a bit. So I tend to have two favourite brushes. The old standby Testors ones we used to use for everything back since the 1970s to slap on the base uniform colours, and a Army Painter7005 for any details.

Needless to say by the end of this painting batch I take a closer look at ny detail brush and realize that there is nothing left f the bristles.

It took me the better part of a day to stop laughing about it. I did say my vision was not the best right???

Anyone else done something similar?

I've used up brushes before, especially when I was using enamels and had to clean them with thinner. Since switching to acrylics I've found my brushes last a little bit longer, but I use the really cheap 00 brushes from China. They're like $25 USD – $30 USD dollars for fifty of them.
Painting 15mm minis did a number on my eyes. I started in the 1990's and I should have switched to 28's a long time ago, but I've still got a lifetime of 15's left to paint. Of course I use a desktop magnifying lens I got from Joann's, but I could use one of those big industrial magnifiers like they use in the microelectronic industry. Or a microscope.

I been thinking hard about a desk top light with a daylight brightness bulb. So far I have been getting away with 2.5 power magnifying glasses. Light for sure.

I do like painting by daylight as well. Even a bright three-way bulb doesn't illuminate like the sun.

I have a Vallejo #2 that the bristles eventually kept coming out after years. They are still there but it's more a size 0 now.

I have drybrushed a few brushes to death.

Fer sure – you can't call yourself a serious painter until you have killed a certain number of brushes

Yep. Drybrushing really increases the process.

Mine hook at the tips, and splay out every which way, long before the bristles drop out. Some become the next drybrush tool, but since I do little dry brushing, they usually nose-dive into the trash, for a fiery end at the city's incinerator.

I use throw-away brushes for painting on my Minwax and Rust-Oleum polyurethane stains, so they go straight into the bin, when I finish a batch, as they're not worth cleaning. I buy them in bulk, from Wal-Mart, 30 brushes for <$2. By the time I reach the end of a batch of figures, their bristles are pointing in every direction, like a Dandelion turned to gray seed puffs. LOL! Cheers!

I use the throw away brushes when I put down the whit school glue on bases for flocking.

Yep, I use them for PVA Glue on the bases, as well. I buy them as needed, keeping a pack of them in the drawer of my painting area. They're a fantastic tool! Cheers!