Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So now that i'm not on my tablet...

Windsor & Newton series 7 brushes are fantastic. I have a 3, 1, 0, 000 and they are fantastic for everything. They clean up amazingly well with some Masters brush soap, and just continue to be amazing. Hell, even the size 1 will give you some pretty fine lines and detail potential, and is my go too all round brush for layering etc. 0 or 000 for fine details as required. The 3 comes in handy if I have to do some delicate base coating, or if I want to cover a number of bases with paint quickly as it holds a lot of paint. Also works well if I am doing the initial layers on a large area like a cloak or painting a bigger model such as a Rat Ogre etc.

I have a GW small drybrush for my drybrushing needs, and I use a S or M Base brush for most of my basecoating as the shape works well and I know I can batter it with quick basecoating jobs, without worrying too much about the brush holding its shape and point. They still come out really well when cleaned with brush soap too.

I have one of the extra-small artificer brushes. I generally prefer multiple cheap brushes, but the cheap detail brushes lose their sharpness really quickly. I'd take some other people's advice here about finding an alternative if you can, but it was more convenient to just buy the GW brush since they're at the store i frequent.

Before using the artificer, I was using Army Painter 'extreme detail' brushes. I personally liked the 'feel' of those better, but regardless of how careful I was, they lost their point extremely quickly. Purely in terms of money, the GW one was a better value, since it has lasted as long as 3-4 army-painter brushes. I have attempted to just use walmart 1-2 dollar brushes for detail, but those lose their sharpness almost instantly. I would invest in a good detail brush again, but I wouldn't for anything larger. I do like GW's dry-brushes though, and luckily they're not 'artificer', so quite a bit cheaper.

I use a Raphael 8404, in size 2, for most of my painting. Despite being a larger size than most people seem to use, it maintains an extremely sharp tip. The thick body of the brush allows it to hold a lot of paint, which prevents paint from drying on the brush, and makes it easier to avoid getting paint into the ferrule, but the fine tip means I can still paint fine details with it. I use it for everything from basecoats to edge highlights.

I highly recommend trying out a larger, high-quality kolinsky sable brush. Mine cost $15 shipped, so it's not a large investment for a brush that will last a long time if well-maintained, and behaves very differently from a small synthetic like GW's detail brushes.

catbarf wrote:
I use a Raphael 8404, in size 2, for most of my painting...I highly recommend trying out a larger, high-quality kolinsky sable brush. Mine cost $15 shipped, so it's not a large investment for a brush that will last a long time if well-maintained, and behaves very differently from a small synthetic like GW's detail brushes.

Not to threadcromancy... but I have to echo Catbarf's sentiment. I use a size 3 Windsor Newton miniature series brush. I find with Windsor Newton, they have a miniature line with shorter hairs and their normal watercolor ones with the longer hairs. I find that since the brushes really hold a point well, with the bigger brush, you want the shorter hairs of the miniature series so that the brush doesn't flex so much, but for the smaller ones, (size 1 and less), you want the standard ones with the longer hairs as they hold more paint.

Of course, YMMV.

I'm a big Windsor Newton fan myself. I get great use out of each one I own, when they start to deteriorate you just use them for more general purposes.

The Artificier Brush - be really careful about the area where the bristles meet the brush. I had some paint get caked around the head of the small brush, after cleaning it lost the point. This was on the third or fourth use. I would not recommend them.