I posted this on the IA forum but figured it's relevant here as well. Just curious what brand/type of brushes people are using right now, figured this could also be a good resource for new painters. We can open this up to cleaning materials, palettes, etc.. as well.

I was lucky enough to grab a few brushes when my wife was travelling for work in the states, so I've been using those (Sizes 0, 1 and 2 for W&N series 7) and I really like them, great brushes. I've also got a few Citadel brushes to plug some holes like a few sizes of the dry brush, the shade, texture sculptor and recently a M base brush that I use for mixing my paints. They are relatively cheap (6-7 bucks Canadian) and seem to be able to take some abuse. What I really would like to add is a few rounder or thicker bodied sable brushes that I can use for basing (sizes 0-3). I find the W&N are quite fine tipped and are great for layering/detail work, but get abused when I try to use them for basing. I find the Citadel brushes are OK at this but just a step below where I want them to be in terms of accuracy. I had a set of Princeton sable brushes I picked up at a local store that I used for about a year that worked great, but they broke down fast (I was using them for mixing, and other techniques I shouldn't have) and they are running around 20 bucks a brush (insane compared to what I got the W&N for) so I would rather find a cheaper alternative. I could go back to these brushes and with better care get more life out of them (just use them for basing) but i'd rather spend the money on a superior product if I am already paying $60 for 3 brushes.

Given my location in Canada it is really tough to find a lot of brushes, especially at a decent shipping price. And the stores I've found within the country are low on quantity. It costs me over $25 Canadian to ship from Rosemary and Co., almost as much as the order itself. Winsor and Newton is actually worse. Amazon.com is an option but again the shipping runs around 15-20 Canadian, minimum, and that is assuming the border doesn't stop it for duty.

I guess what I am looking for are suggestions on brushes to use, if I can find alternative brands perhaps I can hunt them down and actually find a good pipeline here. I don't want to order 5 of each brush before getting to test them, but I don't want to pay the shipping costs multiple times... bit of a chicken and the egg syndrome.

I'd just like a relatively cheap sable that will hold its shape with proper care but can hold a bit of paint and take some abuse, the Rosemary Co Series 33 seems like the best bet so far but I'm open to options!

For cleaning soap for me there is really only one option, The Masters Brush cleaner, it is amazing!

I'm not a good source for advice on good brushes.

However, for basing I highly advise you to grab a bag of the cheapo's from the craft shop. You can usually get a large assortment of sizes for just a couple bucks. No need to use your good stuff for coloring basing materials and drybrushing sand/gravel/etc will eat brushes up over time.

Even for speed painting, I've been using a W&N #2 sable (very nice brush) for almost everything, but for basing and dipping I use the crappy craft brushes.

I bought the cheap brushes from the craft store. They are AWFUL! I'm definitely going to need to buy some quality brushes. I hear Kolinsky Sable are good, so maybe I'll try those.

Does this look good?

https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Siberian-Miniature-Watercolor-Art/dp/B01F2I29LM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493310485&sr=8-1&keywords=kolinsky+sable+brushes

Seems like an awful lot of brushes, but the price is hard to argue with.

I have a bunch of different brushes of varying quality, but my workhorse brushes are my Winsor and Newton Kolinsky Sable brushes. I have them in 1, 0, and 000. Want a 00, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

You don't want to use sable brushes for basing. You want garbage brushes. I have a set of brushes from...I believe Model Painter is the company, that are good enough to keep their snap and lay paint properly, but crappy and cheap enough that I don't feel bad abusing them.

Ya sorry just to be clear I meant like base paint, say step 2 in army painter guides, you spray the figure then apply the base paints layer. That is the step I hate using my W&N for and need to upgrade as I find the citdael brand to just be not quite good enough.

Majority of my brushes are cheap PoS stuff from walmart. I have about 5 or so small, high quality brushes though since the cheapos are nowhere near resilient enough to hold their tip for edge work more than 2 or 3 uses before fanning out a bit.

Step2 for the armypainter is where i use the junk brushes. I dont care about pinpoint accuracy there i just want the base color. Its the highlight step you want the good brushes for. My good brushes are 5-8USD each lol...which you can get a dozen cheapos for like 10USD around here. I dont have a favorite brand of fancier brushes though.

Also it doesnt have any weight of waste on my mind. I can gum up those brushes and not care because theyre ~10USD for a dozen of them lol. Great for those thicker stuff like PVA glue or matt/gloss varnishes since, for me anyway, those tend to ruin the brush no matter how much you clean them.

Prior to RW, I hadn't painted anything for a few years and my citadel pots had all dried up. So I picked up the Army Painter Mega Paint Set II off amazon, which is 42 paints and 3 brushes. I've really been enjoying the regiment brush from them, which is more or less the standard base layer size brush (I think a size 2?). Beyond that, I just have a super cheap plastic palette and then some jeweler's glasses for the finer details.

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

I bought the cheap brushes from the craft store. They are AWFUL! I'm definitely going to need to buy some quality brushes. I hear Kolinsky Sable are good, so maybe I'll try those.

Does this look good?

https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Siberian-Miniature-Watercolor-Art/dp/B01F2I29LM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493310485&sr=8-1&keywords=kolinsky+sable+brushes

Seems like an awful lot of brushes, but the price is hard to argue with.

I would say for acrylic paints stick with synthetic brushes, the organic ones (with actual hair) tend to hold onto the paint a little too well making cleaning a chore and making the paint sticky and clumpy on the brush. Not to mention you'll have a tough time finding uses for the larger brushes in that set.

I use the Army Painter brushes. I would recommend some cheap hobby store flat brushes if you plan to drybrush anything. It is going to tear up the brushes so no reason to waste money on a nice brush you are going to ruin anyway.

I just picked up the Iwata Medea revolution air brush for priming. I wasn't happy with the results of brushing on primer. This air brush did a really good job. It is possible to spray it on too thick but over all gives a thinner, more detail preserving prime coat than a brush. I use the vallejo paints (like the dropper) with some nlun oil.

Brushes, especially good ones, get stupidly expensive. They are like any other tool, you buy the best one you can afford and know the better the tool, the better the result. The air brush I bought was a good brand and one step up from the cheapest model. That is usually a good place to start when buying tools.

3 hours ago, Parakitor said:

I bought the cheap brushes from the craft store. They are AWFUL! I'm definitely going to need to buy some quality brushes. I hear Kolinsky Sable are good, so maybe I'll try those.

Does this look good?

https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Siberian-Miniature-Watercolor-Art/dp/B01F2I29LM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493310485&sr=8-1&keywords=kolinsky+sable+brushes

Seems like an awful lot of brushes, but the price is hard to argue with.

I've got no idea about those, but I've heard that some of the off-brand sable's can actually be pretty good.

EM4 had what I recall were well-regarded own-brand sable brushes at very affordable prices, but some of the more popular sizes often are out of stock.

They do have a range of synthetics that would be great for block-painting and maybe even more.

For bases (actual base of mini, not base layers of AP method) I'd still use the crappy craft store paintbrushes. For those I recommend going to the store and finding an assortment that matches what sizes you need. They're so darn cheap at the craft store or Walmart that there's not much money to be saved buying crappy brushes on amazon.

8 hours ago, FrogTrigger said:

Ya sorry just to be clear I meant like base paint, say step 2 in army painter guides, you spray the figure then apply the base paints layer. That is the step I hate using my W&N for and need to upgrade as I find the citdael brand to just be not quite good enough.

Oh, okay. Strange that you don't like the Series 7s, they're my favorite brushes. To each his own, I suppose. I think you should try the Model Painter brand, it's pretty inexpensive for a large set, and while they don't keep their snap as well as W&N, they still are pretty serviceable. They were pretty great when I first got them, but over time they stopped working as well for me. But I did abuse them, like I said. The set comes with a lot of different sizes and types, although what they call a drybrush I can't understand how you use for drybrushing. They're great for stippling though.

I cut my brush selection to a daVinci Harbin-Kolinsky size 2, size 000 for eyes and one of their blue-handled synthetic flats for drybrushing. Don't recall the size of that one.

These are made in Germany and are reliable and cheap.

Avoid the brushes from GW like the plague.

Same goes to the tiny detail brushes that are sold in most scale model hobby shops that have like 2 strands of hair.

You know the ones I mean. They look like my old 000 after a year of abuse.

Edit: oh and a wet palette and some cork plugs to blue-tack a model onto while painting.

I prefer these big fat ones. so they hold the larger models as well.

I use 2x reading glasses from the dollar store when I need to zero in on fine details. It's cheaper and not as bulky as getting jewelers glasses.

I also, recommend using/making a wet palette. It makes your paints last a lot longer. All you need is a shallow tupper-ware (or similar) container, a damp sponge and baking sheets (not wax paper). You can typically find all this at the dollar stores if you don't already have some at home. I've laid paint down and come back to it weeks later and it was still usable. Just be sure to store it on a level surface with the lid sealed tight.

Also, for stripping paint: from the dollar store (again) you can find a cleaning product called "LA's Totally Awesome All Purpose Concentrated Cleaner" aka.: "Awesome". It will not hurt the figure, but will loosen the paint (acrylic) and you can scrub it off with an old or cheapo toothbrush after 60 minutes or less in some cases.

Mostly Raphael 8404 - size 0-2 and if I need a finer point for whatever reason that they can't handle (really isn't much) or want a touch more control a Windsor Newton 7 series 1 or 2. I seem to prefer the 8404 feel, so the WNS7 are a task brush, of sorts. I don't feel anything smaller is required, even for really small bits on models, as the points don't get any better and the paint just dries on my brush too fast in my climate.

In addition to your soap, check out W+N brush conditioner for cleaning ferrules and such every once and a while, stops the at the base build up. Can also completely rescue stuff you forgot to clean

Get really bright lighting (I find this much more important than magnification).

For us Canadians, you can get some great prices on excellent brushes from UK based jackson art supplies, check it out.