Hi all, been getting back into painting and am almost finished with the Empire units from the core set. I've been using some old brushes I've had for years and most of them are getting frayed and worn out and are now making it harder to do some of the detail work and thin lines. Can anyone recommend a good brush set? What do you all use? The ones on the Games Workshop site seem overpriced. I don't need top of the line (my skill is not that high) but want something decent that won't fall apart after a few uses.

24 minutes ago, P.Smith said:

Hi all, been getting back into painting and am almost finished with the Empire units from the core set. I've been using some old brushes I've had for years and most of them are getting frayed and worn out and are now making it harder to do some of the detail work and thin lines. Can anyone recommend a good brush set? What do you all use? The ones on the Games Workshop site seem overpriced. I don't need top of the line (my skill is not that high) but want something decent that won't fall apart after a few uses.

I use The Army Painter brushes myself. Much more reasonably priced than GW and they have a couple 3-brush sets. I generally use their Regiment and Character brushes for 90% of my painting. Pick up a couple of their drybrushes too and you're pretty much set.

Look for a Kolinsky sable brush, the Windsor and Newton series 7 is seen by most as the best brush for mini painting , Personally I use the slightly cheaper Rosemary and Co series 33, I do have a W & N series 7 somewhere but I do the bulk with the R & C series 33, what's important though is to take care of your brush, if you don't you might as well buy something cheap and synthetic, mind you I've painted with cheap synthetic brushes for over a decade before switching to a kolinsky Sable, A kolinsky Sable is just better at holding a tip if you treat it right.

I'll second Army Painter brushes. Unless you are whipping up some Golden Demon models, they are great. Reasonably priced and (my favorite feature) have triangular handles so they don't roll away. Get the wargamer ones though. Their cheaper "hobby" line has round handles and is entirely trash. I also use the Regiment and Character as my workhorses and I have a Psycho for ridiculously small jobs, but it rarely gets used.

W&N series7 improved my results immensely going from the old citadel brushes. I do my painting almost exclusively with a size 2, as the point is as fine as anything anyway.

The citadel artificer brush is reported to be similar, though the one I ordered split immediately upon use.

Thanks for the input. I'll look into some of these.

My in-laws got me the Nicro 15 piece brush set for Christmas last year and I just started using them... Excellent brushes, far better than the other ones I've been using.