Kickstarter Innovative Painting Tools

[Grotsmasha]

The people at Game Envy are running a new Kickstarter with a variety of new stuff, including a collapsible cup, brush scrubber, and brush set. They are also offering past items such as the Hobby Holder.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gameenvy/innovative-painting-tools

 

I've nabbed myself the cub, scrubber, and drybrush.

 

Review by Watch It Paint it,

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by Grotsmasha

[Cleon]

Looks potentially interesting, not backed at this point, I'll let the thought stew for a while.

[Bryan Blaire]

Interesting, but I’ve had collapsible water cups for years now - Faber-Castell has a very similar design to this one in multiple colors in case anyone is looking for something now.

[Slave to Darkness]

Ill use anything as a water pot so I would never need a collapsible cup, but that sounds awesome and now I want one... 

[Rusted Boltgun]

I was gifted a couple of the Faber Castell collapsible cups for Christmas and really like them. I think Mrs Boltgun was fed up looking at old yoghurt pots on the dining table.

[Spottswoode]

Has anyone tried something similar to the brush cleaners, and are they any good? 

[Firedrake Cordova]

The water cup looks like it was based on the Faber-Castell "Clic & Go" collapsible water pot, albeit with two height "settings" instead of 1. I've got a couple of the Faber-Castell ones, and them being collapsible is nice for tidying away/storage, plus drying brushes on (the ridges around the top means brushes stay where they're put, and it doesn't make sense to have to pot extended when being used for that), so I'm sure that'll apply to these ones. The "channels" for wringing a brush out are an interesting idea, but I'm not sure what the utility of them is, compared to just wiping the brush over the lip of the container?

 

The cleaner pad is intriguing ... I'm wondering just how gentle on the brushes it is. I generally find just swirling the brush in the water gets most paint off, unless I've let it dry in the bristles. It'll be interesting to see what people make of it when they have it in their hands!

[Grotsmasha]

My cup and cleaning puck arrived today, so of course I gave them a test run. Although I can't speak to any long term effects on my Citadel M Layer brush, I can say it *appeared* to be doing a better job of cleaning the paint from the brush vs. just swishing the brush in water alone.

[Bung]

On 3/5/2023 at 10:50 AM, Spottswoode said:

Has anyone tried something similar to the brush cleaners, and are they any good? 

 

Yes, but better get some brush soap and maybe steal a bit of Hair conditioner from your wife/girlfriend etc. if you use Natural Hair brushes 

[Arkhanist]

I picked up a set of these 'paint puck' silicone brush cleaners a while back to go at the bottom of my water jar; it does feel like it gets the brush cleaner, quicker. (the suction cup holds it firmly to the bottom of the pot). I don't smoosh the bristles or scrub it hard, just run it against them. They've been quite popular as a fine art tool for a while, so should be ok. I suspect a spare one would also work nicely as a drybrush blotter for getting off excess paint but I keep forgetting to try it!

 

No apparant damage to my kolinsky brushes so far, though I do also regularly use Masters brush cleaner.

[Oxydo]

12 hours ago, Bung said:

 

Yes, but better get some brush soap and maybe steal a bit of Hair conditioner from your wife/girlfriend etc. if you use Natural Hair brushes 

 

Brush soap and the scrubby/paint puck/whatever fufill two different functions. Scrubby peforms low level cleaning by removing the majority of the loose paint just like how you swish your brush in water and then pull it across a tissue.
Sure, you can just jam your brush filled with loose paint into your brush soap if you want, but that's just wasting brush soap.

 

I've had mine for about a month or two and so far it's been gentle on my brushes. The biggest advantage I've noticed is how much less brush soap I use and then especially when it comes to drybrushing. Lessens the downtime spent cleaning brushes too.

Occasionally I haven't even had to soap it up before switching to a new colour because I got it clean enough just from water+scrubby.

Spoiler

Inb4 always use brush soap, this is my trashiest stippling and dirtbag drybrushing brush.

 

[Arkhanist]

4 hours ago, Oxydo said:

 

 

Occasionally I haven't even had to soap it up before switching to a new colour because I got it clean enough just from water+scrubby.

  Hide contents

Inb4 always use brush soap, this is my trashiest stippling and dirtbag drybrushing brush.

 

 

That's a lot of brush soap! I've always got my brush clean between colours just by painting on paper (gets the worst off), then a rapid back and forth in water, run against edge of water pot, blotting on paper to see if clean, and repeat that sequence until the brush is blotting clean. I usually only soap a brush after 2 or 3 sessions (and leave it on for a bit to condition the brush) when I can start to feel it in the body of the bristles; longer for my less important brushes. I do end up with a lot of dagger strokes on my blotting paper though, and I try to make sure I don't let paint dry on the brush - if painting a large area, I'll wash the brush in water several times while still on the same colour. I also use army painter brushes for bulk work, and keep my kolinsky ones for smaller and detail work.

 

After testing it, the paint puck definitely reduces the amount of water and blotting I need to do so a brush comes out visually clean; 1, maybe 2 rub and swirl vs 3 or 4 without, and the scrubby looks like it perform the same function.