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Alright, I decided to buy two brushes from the new brush range and while one of them works great, the M Layer one splits ends whenever i use it for anything. Even gently brushing it down a smooth surface with no paint on it will result in split ends.

Is this intentional? Is the brush designed to split edges at a small gesture? Or did I get a faulty brush/scammed out of £4.30?

The layer brushes and the small base coat brush are crappy brushes. To use them, you need to continuously roll them on your palette to reform a point.

On top of that, 1 storm raven (where I barely used it) and 2 infantry models later, it has a slightly kinked tip, making it worthless.

I would do yourself a favor and but a nice kolinsky sable brush.

Note that I still like quite a few of the citadel brushes like the wash, glaze, dry, and artificer sets. Just not the synthetic rounds.

 Talys wrote:
The layer brushes and the small base coat brush are crappy brushes. To use them, you need to continuously roll them on your palette to reform a point.

On top of that, 1 storm raven (where I barely used it) and 2 infantry models later, it has a slightly kinked tip, making it worthless.

I would do yourself a favor and but a nice kolinsky sable brush.

Note that I still like quite a few of the citadel brushes like the wash, glaze, dry, and artificer sets. Just not the synthetic rounds.

Second that,

The wash brushes are quite interesting ~ the medium pointed on is a sable / synthetic, and I think would probably make a wonderful basecoat brush. (but the point will not last because of the synthetic bristles)

The large wash filbert one is ox hair ~ what the old drybrushes are made of.

And the new drybrushes are ox / synthetic mix.

The layer and base brushes are all synthetic and so will not hold a point for long, should be 25% the price they are... the handles are pretty.. thats probably a good £2.50 of it.

I would skip out in buying GW altogether... big time waste of money unfortunately.

I find that the M Base brush is alright for now.

But the M Layer was the weak brush.

Anyway, can I get kolinsky sable brushes in UK?

 GaryGibbon wrote:


Anyway, can I get kolinsky sable brushes in UK?

Oh man can you ever!

.. Any arts and crafts shop worth its salt will carry windsor and newton series 7 brushes.
Which are made in the UK.. fun fact, the series is named after the size 7, that the Queen prefers for watercolour, it was made specifically for the Queen and had ivory handles with gold plated ferrules.

Us common folk later got access to the series 7 we now know.


Another fine brush company is Rosemary and Co (my personal fav )
http://www.rosemaryandco.com/watercolour-brushes/pure-kolinsky-sable

They do pure kolinsky sable at the best price I've seen in mostly any shape you might want.
Plus many other great brushes. I've got far too many!
Rosemary and co are a much smaller company than Windsor and Newton. And only do brushes, while W&N do most anything artsy.

Well, there is a Laurence's near where I live. I'll check if there's some newton 7 brushes there

Looking for a brush size similar to the old GW Standard Brush with the orange-tipped handle, Any idea what I should be keeping an eye out for?

The GW brushes really aren't worth it, follow everyone else's coments, and just find some other ones. Honestly, even for what I tend to use them for, they just aren't great. Only GW brush I still use is an old base coat brush for putting down glue for flock on bases.

@GaryGibbon - I would recommend a Winsor & Newton size 1 or size 0 to replace your GW Standard brush -- the 1 is slightly larger, the 0 slightly smaller. But the point is much better, so you may do well with a size 1.

By the way, I agree: the M Base brush is actually surprisingly good. It too will kink after time, but it's still very usable, because it's a flat (filbert) brush. All the layer brushes (other than Artificer layer) are horrible, though. It isn't unique to GW, however. Almost all synthetic brushes do this. I have a brush graveyard to prove it LOL.

@Snoopdevill3 - I would still use the GW drybrushes; there aren't any other brushes readily available quite like them, and they are really nice for drybrushing. Also, the large and medium wash brushes are pretty darn decent for the price, and though expensive (relatively?) the artificer brush is competent.