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.

Ive been using GW brishes for years and up till recently i found them to be fine. Now however i use so many standard brushes its costing me a fortune! Plus theres a few ive bought and they have split where the bristles are on the first use, i would take them back but i feel a little lame doing that. So are there any similar brushes to the gw standard brush that come in for the same price but wont be gakky like the gw ones?
thanks for any advice on this.

I order the Kolinksky sable from Rosemary & Co. They are excellent.

http://www.rosemaryandco.com/watercolour-brushes/pure-kolinsky-sable/pure-kolinsky-pointed

if you want to pay less, their red sable line is also good.

http://www.rosemaryandco.com/watercolour-brushes/pure-red-sable/pointed-pure-red-sable

And for ultra detail - though I'd recommend taking the time with larger brushes to learn brush control so you never need tiny brushes for most detail

http://www.rosemaryandco.com/watercolour-brushes/pure-red-sable/micro-red-sable

Any decent art store will carry small brushes suitable for miniatures in both natural and synthetic fibres which are much better than anything GW produces, their brushes really are bad.

I recently got a GW paint set with a starter brush, and even though I use that brush far less than my main brush I've already had to pull about 5 loose bristles out of it..

I've had what I consider good success just using a nylon brush that was something like 1 or 2 dollars.

@ augusteen. thanks for that. what size from the series 33 matches the gw standard?

My experience with Rosemary wasn't as good. I ordered 6 brushes and only 1 was useable. I haven't sorted it with them yet, but I assume communication was slow due to christmas etc. I hope they'll replace them... eventually. You can see them below, the brushes came with some bristles jammed down by the cover. None of them hold good points. My old workhorse is shown underneath them for comparison.

edit: Image removed as replacements on the way.

oh, man they look very shoddy indeed. anyone been using army painters brushes?

jonny5 wrote:
oh, man they look very shoddy indeed. anyone been using army painters brushes?

The comparison brush at the bottom in my pic is an army painter brush and it's been great despite a lot of mistreatment hehe.

I really can't recommend ever buying a brush from anywhere other than an art store or a brush manufacturer. Ideally - you will want to go to a local store that way you can avoid having what happened to Yonan - though generally you don't have a lot to worry about there.

Stores like Hobby Lobby, Michaels, AC Moore and other chain hobby stores will generally carry one or more lines of Kolinsky Sable brushes. They will normally be a quality brush - regardless of the specific manufacturer (I can't think of any really bad "Kolinsky Sable" brushes). If you can't find anything locally - Dick Blick is the place you want to go online (might be other places which are cheaper - but the service is impossible to beat).

http://www.dickblick.com/kolinsky/sable/#kolinskyandredsablerounds

All of the ones under Sable for Watercolor are good brands. I have used them all except the Dick Blick store brand and have been satisfied with them.

Since the other companies do brushes as an after thought as opposed to brush companies like W&N, Escoda, Raphael and others - the quality is generally not as consistent. In most cases, companies like Army Painter, GW, Reaper, PP and anyone else who is not in the business of brushes use a contract company and have almost no control over their brushes.

That's very strange. Usually everyone rants and raves about how good Rosemary & Co are. First time I've seen a picture like that. I've never, ever gotten a bad brush from them, but i always go with their higher end ones.

Is the Kolinsky series 22 better or worse than the 33 the blurb sounds good for them

" A beautiful tapered sharp point, somewhat longer and slimmer than Series 33. Ideal for drawing and expressive work where continuity of flow is required. Perhaps for the professional artist who demands only the best?"

Has anyone had any experience of using the two?

+1 for Rosemary and co

If you are looking to get some serious brushes, Kolinsky are the way to go. I mainly use DaVinci Kolinskys. The triple (000) is just awesome for details. It's tiny. I also use the Series 7 Kolinskys by Windsor & Newton.

Regardless of whether you buy these brushes (but definitely if you do) buy yourself some of this as well: Master's Brush Cleaner. (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Masters-Brush-Cleaner-Preserver-30ml-1-oz-/280667975516?pt=UK_Crafts_DrawingSupplies_EH&hash=item41591d6f5c) This stuff will prolong the life of your brushes and allow you to make a fine point for storage (which also means it retains it shape)

 kelewan wrote:
Is the Kolinsky series 22 better or worse than the 33 the blurb sounds good for them

" A beautiful tapered sharp point, somewhat longer and slimmer than Series 33. Ideal for drawing and expressive work where continuity of flow is required. Perhaps for the professional artist who demands only the best?"

Has anyone had any experience of using the two?

The 33 is already nice and long. I've never even gotten close to accidentally getting paint up in the ferule of the brush. The 22 holds more paint in the brush, but otherwise is very, very similar in performance to the 33. If you are looking for equivilant point sizes, the 22 has a slightly larger point, so go one size smaller than the 33 if you're looking for the same size point but with a better well and more even flow out of it. I do almost all my painting with a series 33 number 2. If I want a 22 that's equivalent in point size, I grab the number 1.

Rosemary sent out replacement brushes today, here's hoping they're the same quality everyone says. Do really like the triangular grip now though, glad they offer that range.

I'll take the pic down so as not to cause any (hopefully) unnecessary harm to their business.

agustin wrote:

 kelewan wrote:
Is the Kolinsky series 22 better or worse than the 33 the blurb sounds good for them

" A beautiful tapered sharp point, somewhat longer and slimmer than Series 33. Ideal for drawing and expressive work where continuity of flow is required. Perhaps for the professional artist who demands only the best?"

Has anyone had any experience of using the two?

The 33 is already nice and long. I've never even gotten close to accidentally getting paint up in the ferule of the brush. The 22 holds more paint in the brush, but otherwise is very, very similar in performance to the 33. If you are looking for equivilant point sizes, the 22 has a slightly larger point, so go one size smaller than the 33 if you're looking for the same size point but with a better well and more even flow out of it. I do almost all my painting with a series 33 number 2. If I want a 22 that's equivalent in point size, I grab the number 1.

Thanks for the info!

I have 1 army painter brush... the base coat one, and I LOVE it over all my hobby store brushes. I use it for almost everything save drybrushing, and very fine detail.

nold wrote:
I have 1 army painter brush... the base coat one, and I LOVE it over all my hobby store brushes. I use it for almost everything save drybrushing, and very fine detail.

Agreed, that's been my workhorse for over a year now.

I buy mine in 3-5 packs for $5-10 from art stores. I learned quickly that wargame hobby supplies are overpriced, even compared to overpriced hobby supplies in other fields

I've been using Winsor & Newton Series 7 paintbrushes and they've been great so far. They can occasionally take a beating but the point on them stays really well. I just got a Raphael paintbrush in the mail from SecretWeaponMiniatures I've yet to try out, but I expect it to work just as well.

agustin wrote:
That's very strange. Usually everyone rants and raves about how good Rosemary & Co are. First time I've seen a picture like that. I've never, ever gotten a bad brush from them, but i always go with their higher end ones.

true that everyones always creaming themselves about how godly they are and they make their models shinier and also give the painter a million dollars. Like seriously, its rediculously how sold all the rosemary fanboys are. Artstore. Back home Michaels always had 50% off cupons in the sunday press so that might help mitigate how pricy they are. You shouldnt be going through them so quickly though, a brush should last years and years if taken care of properly.

Always dip the brush in water before in paint (keeps the paint from being absorbed by natural brissles.

While painting thuroughly rince and clean brush every 15mins max to prevent any paint from drying.

Never let paint get up to the metal part that holds the brissles because it will dry in there and make the brissles split in different directions.

Never throw them away, you can use ruined brushes for cleaning or stippling by cutting bristles short or one thats not too messed up for dry brushing.

 Yonan wrote:

nold wrote:
I have 1 army painter brush... the base coat one, and I LOVE it over all my hobby store brushes. I use it for almost everything save drybrushing, and very fine detail.

Agreed, that's been my workhorse for over a year now.

I've had a few myself, one of which is my current work horse, and I'm a fan.

But I must be doing something wrong, because brushes are only lasting me ~6 months. Just hit Micahels the other day, and I'm trying out a few Golden Taklon synthetics myself. Wish me luck. They aren't Kolinsky Sable, but then again, I haven't the money to be dropping $20 for a paint brush when my mortgage is ready to tear the leather clean off of my wallet.

jonny5 wrote:
oh, man they look very shoddy indeed. anyone been using army painters brushes?

I have their Wargamer's Most Wanted set. The insane detail brush is the best thing since sliced bread.

wfischer wrote:

jonny5 wrote:
oh, man they look very shoddy indeed. anyone been using army painters brushes?

I have their Wargamer's Most Wanted set. The insane detail brush is the best thing since sliced bread.

I have this brush also (if its the same one I'm thinking with the white triangular handle) and its amazing for details and whatever the hell its made of even if you dont wash in time and paint dries just take your thumb and index nail and the acrylic will come right off

 fenrir1997 wrote:

 Yonan wrote:

nold wrote:
I have 1 army painter brush... the base coat one, and I LOVE it over all my hobby store brushes. I use it for almost everything save drybrushing, and very fine detail.

Agreed, that's been my workhorse for over a year now.

I've had a few myself, one of which is my current work horse, and I'm a fan.

But I must be doing something wrong, because brushes are only lasting me ~6 months. Just hit Micahels the other day, and I'm trying out a few Golden Taklon synthetics myself. Wish me luck. They aren't Kolinsky Sable, but then again, I haven't the money to be dropping $20 for a paint brush when my mortgage is ready to tear the leather clean off of my wallet.

Golden Taklons will be a nylon bristle, which has a fair amount of memory. Over time - you can get a curled tip from brushing in the same direction over and over again. Try if you can to rotate the brush as you paint from time to time.

Other than that - they don't hold really thin, watered down paints quite as well as a natural fiber...but are an good brush fiber. I use them for doing line work (think racing stripes and what not) as well as for most my oil and enamel painting (which destroy natural bristles).