Brush advice

[Guest]

I did my first model awhile ago and was going to pick up on some lessons learned. One of the lessons was my paintbrushes. I had bough a M. Base, M. Layer, M. Shade. I realized that M. Base and M. Layer were not good at covering a full model and my paints were drying faster than I could get them spread around. I also had great difficulty on painting the details on Geigor and the helm lens.

 

I was thinking of getting a L. Base for basing, and a XS artificer brush for details and doing the helm lens. I am not sure what to us for dry brushing the frost weapons and pelts maybe a S. Dry brush? Also is the shade brush the best for the gem paints or would a Glaze brush be better? Right now I'm just painting marines, and not vehicles. I wanted to make sure I have decent brushes before continuing on, later getting more for terrain and vehicles.

[Major_Gilbear]

I don't think that worrying about which named brush goes with which area you're painting is going to get you very far in terms of improving.

 

I know GW are mostly trying to be helpful in naming the brushes they offer like this, but I feel it draws focus away from *how* you put the paint on model, which is actually way more critical.

 

Important things to look for in a brush are how it behaves, the consistency of that behaviour, and how much control it gives you.

 

Natural red Kolinsky Sable has a very good and consistent behaviour. It has a nice "snap", comes to a very sharp point naturally, and produces very smooth strokes.

 

Using a slightly bigger brush also helps, as it holds more paint and keeps the paint from drying out. Since the ability to for getting fine detail comes from the sharpness of the point and not the size of the brush, Kolinsky Sable is again a fantastic choice.

 

However, all Sables are quite delicate, and therefore aren't well suited to harsh techniques like drybrushing. For jobs like this, you want a hard wearing stiff bristle like Hog hair. These are cheap, and are frequently used for oil painting.

 

I would therefore strongly suggest getting a couple of Size 1 Kolinsky brushes to get you started, and maybe a small Size 2 Hog hair flat brush for drybrushing bases and fur. There are many well-known brands (Winsor & Newton, Raphael, Rosemary & Co, etc), and it's well worth your time having a look at some in an artist's shop to see what you like.

 

After that, it's more a case of trying out and practicing different painting techniques to get the results you want. :)

[Guest]

I don't think that worrying about which named brush goes with which area you're painting is going to get you very far in terms of improving.

I know GW are mostly trying to be helpful in naming the brushes they offer like this, but I feel it draws focus away from *how* you put the paint on model, which is actually way more critical.

Important things to look for in a brush are how it behaves, the consistency of that behaviour, and how much control it gives you.

Natural red Kolinsky Sable has a very good and consistent behaviour. It has a nice "snap", comes to a very sharp point naturally, and produces very smooth strokes.

Using a slightly bigger brush also helps, as it holds more paint and keeps the paint from drying out. Since the ability to for getting fine detail comes from the sharpness of the point and not the size of the brush, Kolinsky Sable is again a fantastic choice.

However, all Sables are quite delicate, and therefore aren't well suited to harsh techniques like drybrushing. For jobs like this, you want a hard wearing stiff bristle like Hog hair. These are cheap, and are frequently used for oil painting.

I would therefore strongly suggest getting a couple of Size 1 Kolinsky brushes to get you started, and maybe a small Size 2 Hog hair flat brush for drybrushing bases and fur. There are many well-known brands (Winsor & Newton, Raphael, Rosemary & Co, etc), and it's well worth your time having a look at some in an artist's shop to see what you like.

After that, it's more a case of trying out and practicing different painting techniques to get the results you want.

It was mostly about the size of the brush than the name. Using too large of a brush was impossible to get details nailed down, or the base brush was taking too long to cover the model.

Korea is rather hard to get decent stuff and even harder at a decent price, my wife found a size 00 W&N brushes... for 50 USD each. Also thought it was confirmed the artificer brushes were W&N and the XS was a 00, which means I can go to the only GW store in Korea and get it for like 25 USD. I could order some brushes but would wait 2-3 weeks depending...

[Major_Gilbear]

Amazon usually do W&N Seties 7 size 1 brushes for about £7.00-7.50 (which a good price). Just be mindful that you don't accidentally get the "miniature" ones as they are just too small to be useful.

Unfortunately, the problem you are experiencing with big brushes not getting details is more down to brush quality than anything else; and as you found yourself, the all brushes are not more helpful.

Let me see if I can show you what I mean - I'll update this post shortly with some pics.

Edit: Here are some pics as promisd (sorry they're a bit blurry - my phone doesn't do macro shots very well).

Here are the three sizes of brush (size 2 at the top, then 1, and 0 at the bottom).

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Misc/Brush%20Sizes_zpsxtpxzkob.jpg

I normally pant all my infantry with just a size 1. Even though it's a decent size, the point is very fine indeed, and is good enough to add reflections to eyes! In this next pic hopefully you can see the tip against the eyeball.

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Misc/Brush%20Detail%20Work_zpsubr4tyjj.jpg

In both of these pictures you can also see how well the brushes keep their tips even without any paint.

I am certain that many international websites would be willing to ship to Korea, but it might be worth emailing them first for a quote with a list of what you want to buy. Unfortunately I cannot comment on what it will cost you though, as I have no idea - sorry.