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So after many years in the wilderness of admiring other people's work from afar I'm once again giving serious consideration to picking up my paint brushes. The last time I painted any figures was clear back in the heady days of 40K 3rd Edition so I am aware that I am likely very out of touch. In those days I was limited to Citadel paints and brushes. So my questions are;

- who is a good manufacturer of paints? Do you faithfully stick to one company, or do you choose different ones for different jobs?
- brushes? Which ones do you use, and what is a reasonably priced set for a returning painter?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

I use P3 and Vallejo paints. GW's technical range and some washes.
Brushes. Winsor&Newton Series 7. Nothing else even comes close in my opinion. Go for a number 2 and a 0 should set you up well. And buy some cheaper brushes for metallics.
Brush soap and brush restorer also helps.
Keep the series 7's clean and they will last a long time..

I for one like citadel paints. Theyre good quality and give good results. I dont get why people dont like them. I also use vallejo air and game color

There are a million threads on this, but I suggest you look at availabilities and colors first (reaper does you no good if you have to drive 60 miles or pay shipping). Model color does jack if you want to paint Nurgle (not all Vallejo shops have game color). Beyond that, it's a lot of user preference. Mine is citadel, though I use several other brands too.

Brushes: Winsor Newton Series 7 for premium brushes (I think 00 is a wonderful detail brush, 0, 1, 2 are all quite useful). You need to go to a fine arts store to find these. Citadel brushes are widely available and reasonable entry level brushes.

The other top brush that hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread is Raphaël 8404.

Most pro painters stick to a #1 brush, I bought only that size and bigger in order to learn painting faster (that did not prevent me from vastly decreasing the minimum size of the detail I can paint).

Do not settle for another lower grade Winsor & Newton or a Citadel brush, those will greatly hamper your progress and only cost a tiny bit less. What is ten bucks for the best paintbrush you can get in a hobby where that gets you one plastic model ?

With regards to paint, in my opinion only some of the acrylics are decent, such as ultramarine, chaos black and such dark colors.

I find that metallics and light paints are so bad you could do better by mixing them yourselves.

I'll be chastised for what I post, but...

I settle for brushes I get from local Arts and Crafts shops (Hobby Lobby, Michaels, AC Moore)
Then again I'm not attempting to get myself to a Golden Daemon. I've found my love of terrain crafting, so bring on the duct-tape!

AND, I also opt for Deco-Art "Americana" line of craft acrylics. Great color selection, thins well, airbrushes fine, coverage is absolutely horrid lol. Pros and cons here. But, to balance that, most of my other paints are all airbrush specific paints (Badger, Wicked, etc). EXCELLENT coverage, already thinned, vibrant colors, etc. And the size bottles means I'll NEVER run out of that color for a very long time...

I would grab nice brushes as suggested above, but I don't like to pay much for paints. I've seen award winning paint jobs with ruddy paints before. Some of it is the tools, but more of it is skill XD

I use Vallejo Model/Game color and a smattering of GW stuff. I also use cheapo stuff from the craft store for bases and vehicles. For brushes I really like the Princeton Art and Brush Co 4050R. couple sizes, my go to being a size 2. I've had it for a few years now and still works well. Except when I'm laying down base colors, then I just use one of the 15 brushes I picked up from the craft store for $5.

I just don't understand how people who spend 3 bucks for a tiny pot of paint and 10 bucks for a tiny miniature can't be assed to spend 10 bucks on the best paintbrush in the whole world, considering how much time and effort it will save them as well as how much more skill they will acquire thanks to it.

DOES.NOT.COMPUTE. ERROR.

morgoth wrote:
I just don't understand how people who spend 3 bucks for a tiny pot of paint and 10 bucks for a tiny miniature can't be asked to spend 10 bucks on the best paintbrush in the whole world, considering how much time and effort it will save them as well as how much more skill they will acquire thanks to it.

DOES.NOT.COMPUTE. ERROR.

Lol, I do my best not to spend that much on models. I spend $3 on a 2oz bottle of paint, or $5 for a 2oz bottle of airbrush paint, NEVER the pots lol. And, I have too much on my plate per-se to really try to rock and roll on my painting skills, thus not bothering too much with top shelf tools. When I have the opportunity, I'll grab the Kolinsky that I've had in my wishlist for years, but not quite yet. I understand your thoughts, but, that's people XD

 fenrir1997 wrote:

morgoth wrote:
I just don't understand how people who spend 3 bucks for a tiny pot of paint and 10 bucks for a tiny miniature can't be asked to spend 10 bucks on the best paintbrush in the whole world, considering how much time and effort it will save them as well as how much more skill they will acquire thanks to it.

DOES.NOT.COMPUTE. ERROR.

Lol, I do my best not to spend that much on models. I spend $3 on a 2oz bottle of paint, or $5 for a 2oz bottle of airbrush paint, NEVER the pots lol. And, I have too much on my plate per-se to really try to rock and roll on my painting skills, thus not bothering too much with top shelf tools. When I have the opportunity, I'll grab the Kolinsky that I've had in my wishlist for years, but not quite yet. I understand your thoughts, but, that's people XD

Yeah.. those acrylics that don't even stick properly and go on thick as feth. I like them on terrain, on miniatures they're a waste of time.

That doesn't make sense either, you're shaving off a few cents off of one hour of painting which costs you at least $8. Time is money (a lot more than money but you know the saying).


Do yourself a favor, look at the time this hobby takes from you, translate that into dollars, and don't skimp on tiny things that vastly affect the outcome of the time you're spending.


I agree that top shelf tools can be expensive when you talk power tools, metal cutting or music, but for miniature painting it's so low it's laughable (except airbrushes which are stupidly overpriced).




Of course it's your life, you're welcome to take any decisions you like and not know or care about the reasons you took that decision Just saying it doesn't make financial sense.