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So I decided, now that my Deathwing army is fully assembled, that I should get around to painting them. I also want to re-do all my DA veterans and tacticals, as well as get a few marines every now and again and paint some pre-heresy/loyalist Alpha Legion marines. But my problem is that my brushes always lose their tip and fray, and then I have little lines of paint, which when I go to fix, make more little lines of paint and then everything looks bad. My brushes right now are a $5 25 pack of brushes I bought at the supermarket (they were recommended by some of the better painters around here) a reaper brush which magically appeared on my bookshelf one day, and a GW brush from about 10 years ago. None of them have a good tip, and it makes painting fine details, getting in small spaces, and attempting free hand difficult and annoying.

What brushes do you guys suggest getting? And for someone who can't afford an air brush (and doesn't know how to use one), what is the best technique for painting miniatures? Thanks ahead of time.

Any brush can keep their tip. You just need to maintain them.

There's a bunch of brush cleaners, ranging from soaps to liquids and techniques.

I personally use The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver, which you can find here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Masters-Brush-Cleaner-Preserver/dp/B0009RRT9Y

It should also be in your local arts & crafts store.

I personally like Army Painter's line of brushes, they have a mix of synthetic and natural hair brushes. I don't know much in regards to natural hair beyond the fact that they seem to do fine details better, but I think that's on a brush to brush basis.

There really is no "best" brush since each person has different needs. Same thing with "best" technique for painting. There are only guidelines, such as thinning paint, washing models with soap and water, drilling barrels, and filing mold lines. The rest is up to you.

EDIT: I know there will be people that will suggest you get Kolinsky Sable brushes. Those are used if you really are comfortable with your painting skills, and judging from your post, you're still learning. Kolinskies are NOT meant for you.

I suck on the end of my brushes after i clean the paint off.

PROTIP: Keep a pack of jelly babies or jelly beans, etc, near your paint station. When you sit down to paint nosh down on a few. They will cause your saliva to be stickier which will help keep the bristles nicely pointed.

Paintbrushes come in may types sizes and prices. So how do you decide on a brush?

Material

Kolinsky Sable takes first place in brush hair. It is its ability to form a perfect point that makes it the most widely used brush hair by the most experienced miniature painters. Kolinsky Sable is very durable and has excellent paint holding ability. It holds a lot of paint and the paint does not come off until you want it to. (Compare that to a nylon brush which is too slippery and so the paint slides right off if you load it with paint.)

Sable, usually red Sable, has similar properties as Kolinsky but does not hold the same point. It makes a pretty good dry brush though as it holds paint well. Cheaper Red Sable with thicker hair will make a more durable dry brush than the better hair. Red Sable is cheap man's Kolinsky.

Squirrel is softer than Kolinsky or Red Sable and so it does not have the snap or stiffness that is needed for painting miniatures. It does, however, make a great dry brush.

Mongoose is very tough, affordable and holds paint quite well. Its durability makes it a wonderful dry brush that will just not die no matter what you do to it. A Kolinsky or Red Sable will eventually be destroyed by dry brushing unless it is a cheap Sable with thick hair. Mongoose brushes can make good points as well and are perfect for those who like a tough brush. 

Synthetic or Nylon brushes really suck and in small sizes they offer only little savings as compared to a quality brush.

Shapes
From top to bottom; Bright, Filbert, Flat and finally Round.



I'll use the Bright and Flat styles for nearly interchangeable purposes such as large flat surfaces on vehicles or anything else I want to lay a smooth, even coat down.
I find that I never use Filbert tip brushes.
You will find yourself doing the majority of your work with Round Tips. They offer the most flexibility in uses, and the sharp points are great for detail work.

Size
A quality Kolinsky Sable brush will come to such a good point that a size 2 can have as sharp as a tip as a size 3/0, the larger brush will hold more paint and be bigger, but they both will have great tips. A size 0 and 1 is a good place to start. Then if you find that you liking the bigger brush better, you may want to add a size 2 at some point. If you find yourself liking the small brush better you may want to add a size 1/0, 2/0 or 3/0 at some point. 

Most Recomended Brands
Raphael Series 8404 Kolinsky Red Sable
Windsor and Newton's Series 7
Dick Blick Sable brand (The cheaper alternitive)

You can find an in depth discussion on Raphael verses Series 7 Here

I agree with learning to clean your brushes. If you google brush cleaning you can find any number of video guides on how to do it.

As far as technique goes.......
Well there is to much to explain without knowing how advanced you are. There are several good guides both free and not floating around and I'll try to point you to some good ones.

Miniature Mentor One of the best tutorials out there. I suggest their first video. Its a bargin for the price.

Jereme Bonamant Teboul has a great video series but it is pricy. His site does have some interesting guides for free however.

Hot Lead What he lacks in natural talent he makes up for technical skills. He explains everything he does all the time and why. A decent buy, I would recommend Miniature mentor before this but its not bad.

Miniature Painting Secrets with Natalya A very long series with fairly bad reviews mainly because she tends to not explain very much. Its a good buy to see a master painter at work though.

Jen Haley's site has some great tutorials.

Figurepainters he has a very well written guide with a ton of pictures.

Ańa's blog Painting Mum is a great read.

Chest of Colors Articles about everything from mold making, basing and painting. From beginner to expert.

Studiomcvey has some decent Youtube tutorials, although these are geared more for the beginner.

Crooked eye studios has some tutorials although they are a bit sparse on information and a very nice gallery.

Destroyer Minis has a quick and easy tutorial on painting eyes.

Jrn has several guides.

Lost in the warp has a great deal of tutorials but they are kind of hit and miss. Still its not a bad idea to browse through it.

Akaranseth has yet more tutorials, some are on painting but most are on terrain.

Anyway I hope that helped. I can add more later if you need some or if you are looking for anything in specific. Just let me know.

The problem you are describing has nothing to do with brushes and everything to do with not cleaning them properly. If you are not using a brush soap any brush will lose its tip, even a nice expensive one. Small amounts of paint get left behind and eventually make their way up to the ferrule. If you ARE using a brush soap almost any brush will keep its tip, even cheap ones.

Get some Masters Brush Cleaner & Preserver, it is available at most hobby stores and one container will last you a couple of years.

Do not use jelly beans, you are just depositing more crap on your brushes (in this case sugar crystals) and wearing them out pre-maturely.

Just get some brush soap.

Also get the new brushes if you can, they make painting much easier, but know that if you don't use a brush cleaner they will also fray.

Rosemary and Co Series 33. Pure Kolinsky Sable brushes that start at $5.33 US/$5.42 Canadian. Great quality, low price, fast shipping, well-packaged with plastic brush tips so the points don't get ruined in shipping, and they include a full-colour catalogue of all of their brushes with every order. I understand that you're new to painting, but R&Cs are a much better brush for a lower price than GW, Army Painter and Winsor & Newton. I like Army Painter's Regiment brush for basecoating, but for finer details R&C's are must haves. I also highly recommend the Masters Brush Cleaner that AresX8 linked in a previous post.

riplikash wrote:Do not use jelly beans, you are just depositing more crap on your brushes (in this case sugar crystals) and wearing them out pre-maturely.

Thats never happened with any of my brushes. Sure jelly bean spit might not be as good as soap but i haven't has a problem with it yet.

Snrub wrote:

riplikash wrote:Do not use jelly beans, you are just depositing more crap on your brushes (in this case sugar crystals) and wearing them out pre-maturely.

Thats never happened with any of my brushes. Sure jelly bean spit might not be as good as soap but i haven't has a problem with it yet.

Im confused, jelly beans?

Don't buy an expensive brush if you are going to destroy it in 2-3 uses. Better quality doesn't mean they last longer with brushes, it means they have the capability of holding a tip and paint. You might want to get some of vallejos kolinsky's for like 5-6$ Once you notice you are taking better care of them you can upgrade to a WN series 7 or Rosemary and co series 33.

Go for something middle-of-the-road, army painter brushes are good quality and really cheap in the UK.

I've caught some flack over mentioning it before - but I really enjoy the official Citadel/GW brushes. They're made for model painting, very fine details, and they're fairly durable.
They're categorized by purpose (wash, drybrush, fine detail) and they're shaped and sized for that purpose.

I've used a number of brushes from a craft store ranging from fairly cheap to fairly expensive and when I first tried a Citadel brush I was certain that I wouldn't use anything else.



.....well that's not entirely true, I still do use some of my old brushes - but not much.

I don't see a problem with that. GW brushes are above average quality (certainly good enough for mini painting) and easy to use do to their labeling. It's much harder to pick out the right artist brush for the job (size...0...bulb?). GW brushes are a little over-priced (and are really just re-labeled art brushes), but readily available and conveniently labeled.

It 's the same reason a lot of us use GW paints, even though we know there are cheaper options. Yes, other paints are cheaper and of the same quality, but GW is good enough, not much more expensive, and it is always nice to know when a tutorial says "scorpion green" or "Devlin mud" exactly which shade you need.

The_Juggler wrote:I've caught some flack over mentioning it before - but I really enjoy the official Citadel/GW brushes. They're made for model painting, very fine details, and they're fairly durable.
They're categorized by purpose (wash, drybrush, fine detail) and they're shaped and sized for that purpose.

I've used a number of brushes from a craft store ranging from fairly cheap to fairly expensive and when I first tried a Citadel brush I was certain that I wouldn't use anything else.



.....well that's not entirely true, I still do use some of my old brushes - but not much.

I agree generally, for tabletop level and the majority of painters, gw brushes are a good choice. Brush soap will still save you a fortune on them tho and a series 7 quality fine detail brush would probably be good idea if your doing anything like eyes.

Army painter might be good too but ive never used those.