I'm looking for a nice set of brushes to paint my minis with, and was wondering what other people here used and recommended. Really looking for stuff that can get the fine detailing done. Thanks!
It really depends on whether or not you have the time and/or patience to take care of your brushes. Frankly, I've started going cheaper and cheaper with my brushes. Even when I do expend effort to keep my brushes wet while using and then clean and treat them after I finish, it takes about the same amount of time for them to start curling and being difficult to use as the cheap ones I barely make time to rinse out.
I've also started using makeup brushes for dry brushing rather than buying expensive mini painting dry brushes. Same effect, about 1/4 the price.
YMMV, but I recommend going cheap. Here's a search on eBay...find a large set for free shipping and order them: ebay search
For fine ship details, you shouldn't need anything smaller than 3/0 or 5/0 in my experience.
Ha. I went the opposite of grgbobe: I migrated from super cheap brushes to more and more expensive. For years, I used IMEX 2/0 and 0/0 that I could get at my local hobbyshop. I found that these wore out way too quickly, so I was using a new detail brush every 2 or 3 ships (I do a lot of detailing). Two years ago, I splurged on a Windsor and Newton Series 7 brush (size 00). These are about $20, but I'll never go back to anything else. I'm still using the first one I bought, and I've probably detailed 15 or 20 ships with it and it's not showing signs of wear yet. Full disclosure: I use "the masters" brushcleaner pretty neurotically to keep the brush clean and tip pointy.
Note that I used to use tiny 5/0 and even 10/0 size brushes for detailing, but find the bigger brushes (2/0's and my W&N 00) are easier to use and give better paint control.
For basecoating and other low-precision stuff, I use a #4 shader or the IMEX brushes size 0 or 2. I don't care about the point on these, so they "last" a long time. I have a W&N size 2 brush that I bought for this but never use (bristles too big and squishy)
I just replaced my 10 year old Army Painter drybrush with a 2nd one last year. Neither of these owe me anything. They're awesome and they get tons of use. I have an old Reaper Pro 4 that I use for this too, though it tends to hold more paint so I only use it when I want to be less subtle with drybrushing.
Last, I have an old, worn out Atlas 5/0 that I use for deck washes. I don't know why, but this brush works better for me for that purpose than any other.
I use Windsor and Newton Series 7 as well. Mostly 00 and 000. They will last a long time if you take care of them. I have recently started using Tamiya PRO II Kolinsky brushes. The Extra Fine and Fine brushes are very nice. They are about the same price as the W & N brushes, but a little easier to find I think.
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Tech tip I learned during a painting class at GenCon. Kolinsky natural hair brushes can have their life extended greatly if you soak them in hair conditioner for a few minutes every so often. They are natural hair after all. I suspect some of the commercial hobby "brush restorers" and just a version of hair conditioner. It seems to work for me.
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