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First off, I'm not any sort of brush authority. Far from it - I'm very much new to this, so keep that in mind. I very well could be doing it wrong.

I go through paintbrushes pretty frequently. At first, it's because I was not properly cleaning them. I got some pink soap, and worked on taking better care of them. Although that did lengthen the life of my brushes, it became clear to me that part of the problem was that I was buying really cheap brushes from the craft store ($2-3 range). I started getting brushes in the $5-6 range (such as Master's Touch and Loew-Cornell), and these are definitely better.... but. I keep seeing people say that their brushes last for years with proper care. I've certainly not been able to attain anything like this - my brushes now last perhaps 2 months before, inevitably, they start curling in all directions at the tips, or some similar undesirable. I do store them horizontally, with no pressure on the tips, so not sure why that happens. I've tried a few brands of brushes, some better, some worse. I decided to try buying the official Citadel brushes, since the price was about average.

I got 4 brushes, which I thought would cover all of my basic mini needs: a basecoat brush, a standard brush, a detail brush, and a fine detail brush. The handles are thin and comfortable, with a rather pleasing matte finish, rather then the typical gloss. The bristles are made from Kolinsky Sable, which is rather softer then the Golden Taklon I've typically been getting. It also should be mentioned that the sizes were not as distinct as I had thought they would be. The standard brush is only slightly smaller then the basecoat brush, and the difference in size between the detail and fine detail is so insignificant, I don't think I could tell them apart if it were not printed on them. Definitely buy one or the other. I'd say you could do an entire mini with the basecoat brush and standard brush, and get a third party spotter for eyes. The basecoat brush seems like a good workhorse not dissimilar from the P3 standard brush, but with a less pointed tip, and slightly shorter bristles (also, the P3 brush is $7 and comes in a better package).

I went to work on the ork boyz that were next in my queue using the basecoat brush. The belly held plenty of paint, and the tip stayed straight. After getting halfway through the Ork boyz, I'm pretty pleased with them. They cleaned pretty easily, although it seem seem like more-then-normal amounts of pink soap got sucked up into the ferrule. I don't yet have any information on their longevity, having only owned them a few days.

I did notice that there were 2 bristles floating in my rinse water. Someone else posted that they got Citadel brushes and they fell apart easily - I hope this is not an omen of things to come.

I'd definitely recommend these brushes (3 of them, anyway) if you were considering them.

I bought a Fine detail brush and it worked wonders for me and i was finishing models left and right. I would always put the sleeve that it came in on just for added protection when i would put it away. I noticed that it started to thin out then all of a sudden all the bristles fell out and i was out of a fine detail brush.

I use a fine detail brush for everything except drybrushing, and I haven't felt the need to replace it yet. Works fine for me.

The reason your old brushes were curling was because they were made of Golden Taklon. Taklon is a synthetic material, which is very prone to curling with usage.

For quality, you cannot beat sable brushes, either kolinsky, or red sable. Synthetic brushes are only good for terrain and drybrushing, unfortunately.

I have had the best luck with mid priced (5-7 usd) craft store brushes like the Leow-Cornells and similiar. I still use the cheap brushes for dry brushing, base painting, and sometimes for vehicle painting, but I was never too impressed with the GW ones. They work as well as any of the craft store ones, but they tend to cost a bit more. I have yet to find any brushes that hold up all that well, I replace mine about every 3 to 6 months, as needed. As an aside, I frequently use automotive touch up brushes at my job, they are made from horse hair or squirrell hair; I use them in urethane auto paints and clean them with strong solvents like laquer thinner. When I store them, I put them in a tupperware tub soaking in automatic transmission fluid to keep them from drying out. I get incredible life out of these brushes, years sometimes. I wonder if anyone makes regular brushes from hair, or if any products are available for makeing your brushes not dry out?

Gw Brushes are fine.

I find the three that I user are the following -

Standard brush - used for basecoats where I don't want to paint everything on the model the same colour. Holds plenty of paint, applies smoothly.

Detail brush - better for 90% of things over the fine detail - great for some edge lining, basic fine highlights and details.

Wash brush - this is fantastic - gets great coverages on the washes (essential) as well as serving as a great base coat paintbrush for vehicles or MC's. Works very well with watered down paints and washes, of which I use a lot of.

I'm still quite content with my 3-4 dollar packs of assorted brushes. n_n I did pick up a package (I believe there were 7-9 brushes in the pack) of detail brushes for about 5 bucks. Not bad, if I do say so myself. No curling, no fraying, no bristles falling out. I believe they are synthetic, but don't quote me on that.

Edited for spelling fails. :(