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Hail to the god Emperor!,

I am starting WH40K with the Blood Angels and I am on a mission to paint my figures as beautifully as I possibly can. This means that I will be paying great attention to every little detail on each figure. But in order for me to accomplish this, I will need good paint brushes that will withstand the beating.

I have looked at the brushes from GW and honestly it seems that they are overpriced, and not at all great quality. After some online research I have decided to go with the Winsor and Newton Series 7 brushes but I do not know which ones to purchase as I do not know which ones will match the GW brush levels.

Please recommend which W&N brushes I should purchase based on the following information:

Four brushes for basecoats (S, M, L and XL Base),
Two brushes for shading (M and L Shade),
Three brushes for drybrushing (S, M and L Dry),
Three brushes for layering (XS, S and M Layer),
One brush for glazing (M Glaze), - Do I even need this?
One tool for texture effects (M Texture). - Do I even need this?

I will be purchasing the following units:

1. BA Librarian (conversion using Gray Knight torso and Sanguinary Guard body). Jet packs with wings!
2. 2 Sanguinary Priests (one with Lemartes body and Sanguinary Guard jet pack).
3. 2x 10 man assault squads (using Sanguinary Guard jet packs on each model).
4. Maybe a Storm Raven.
5. 1x Baal Predator.
6. Death Company squad with Chaplain as their leader.
7. 2x Furioso Dreadnought (1 for the Death Company).
8. Possibly Assault Terminators.
9. 10 man Sternguard Veteran Squad.
10. Maybe a drop pod.
11. 2x Tactical squads.
12. 1x Devastator squad.
13. Command Squad.
14. Dark Angels Standard Bearer (conversion to BA).

I have a steady hand when it comes to painting but I do know that much about it. I have been researching how to paint Space Marine models especially the BA Chapter so I believe I will be able to do an excellent job. Famous last words, right?

I will appreciate any and all help regarding this matter.

 Adeodatus_Crius wrote:
Hail to the god Emperor!,

I do not know which ones will match the GW brush levels..

Other than perhaps the new (and over priced) artificer brush, they won't match at all and that is a great thing.

A size 1 and a size 0 will do most of your work without issue, including fine detail stuff, so long as you don't abuse them and keep their point. A size 00 might be worthwhile for the odd occasion of some extra fine detailing. Investing in a tub of Master's Brush Soap will go a long way to helping you take car eof your brushes and keeping them alive for ages.

I have 3 main sets of brushes, 2x size 1, 3 x size 0 and 2x old citadel dry brushes, one of which is for most colours, one for pale ones/white only and one for metallics only. The metallic brushes are cheap art shop kolinsky sable brushes as I find that they tend to get ruined eventually anyway and I don't want brushes I use for other colours mixing with ones for metalics. Used to do it and tended to fid that some metallic flakes getting mixed in to my black/red/whatever regardless of how well I though I'd cleaned it.

I have a couple of generic art store size 1 Kolinsky Sable brushes lying around from my early painting days that I'll use for basecoats if they don't need to be overly neat.

,Now it's probaby worth mentioning that I largely paint infantry and dreadnought sized figures. If you're planning on doing vehicles without an airbrush, then a size 2 might be a worthwhile investment for basecoating at the very least,

Dry brushes you won't need to go W & N. Companies like The Army Painter do perfectly adequate ones.


I would say that even with W & N the brushes won't be peffect straight away. They need a little bit of use to get them to a point where they're ready for super detail work in my experience.

The GW brushes actually do a decent job for what they are intended for. However, you definitely do not need to follow GW's general guidelines for having multiple brushes of slightly different sizes to do specific jobs.

Since I got a couple of W & N Series 7 size 2 brushes, I use them for all of my brush work. The quality of the brushes means they hold a really nice point, meaning I can do everything from base coating, layering, edge highlighting, and really fine detail just with the one brush.

So more than anything, I would recommend trying one of their size 2 brushes and seeing what it can do for you.


There are however some techniques that I would not use it for.

While I would use it for targeted recess washes, I would not use my W & N for an overall wash on a model, as for this, I'd want a brush that wasn't quite as delicate.

So if you are intending on using techniques such as washing and dry brushing, on both marine size models and vehicles, this would be my suggestion, to go along with the W & N size 2 :

For marines/terminators
- GW medium Shade brush
- GW small dry brush

For vehicles
- GW XL base brush
- GW medium or large dry brush (possibly the large one here if you intend on dry brushing highlights all over your vehicles)


If you are going to be using texture paints, personally I would suggest using something other than a brush for this, as they are quite thick, and gritty, which I find brushes struggle to spread round. I use the GW texture spreader, but you could make your own out of a bit of plasticard or something similar if you wanted to save some money.

Hope that helps!

Only a bad workman blames his tools (and my grandad built airplanes for a living for 40 years, he swears by that tennent). My models aren't world class by any standard but I've manage to paint some good models nothing but the old GW Large Brush. The new ones looks even more specialised and I think if you could justify the cost they'd be more than good enough. However, if you want Winsor Newton just pick out brushes with that same style and design. The ones you'd really be after are layering brushes, so find good quality ones in a size you can work with, as everyone is different. For example, I still use the Large brush for everything from vehicles to eyes, but anything smaller I can't handle.

For washes and drybrush you could pick up other brushes for well cheaper, generic ones. Drybrushing all you need are stiffer than average bristles, and for washes something soft with a rounded tip will do. A large bodied brush will cover quickly, and if you need to be more delicate, your choice of detail brush would be better than slopping over.

When it comes to glazes, you're better again using your layering brush as it will keep the glaze thin and allow you build up over time.

Texture effects are where I kinda get torn on. A stiff bristle brush is good, but the grits of the likes of GW Texture Paint is hard to clean regardless, so be aware. Personally I'd recommend some sort of sculpting tool, if it has a little scoop type shape on the end, which allows you to scope reasonable chunks of basing paint out without smearing it over the pot or getting it stuck on the brush, while the tool itself, combined with a toothpick, can be used to shape the stuff much better than a brush. Also much nicer on clean up and leaves your stiff brush ready to drybrush.


As for actual size, I'd recommend finding a local art store and sizing up the sizes of brushes that feel and look comfortable to work with, because like I say, everyone is different. Someone might swear by a size 0 and others a size 2. Once you get size right you could either buy the ones there if you prefer or order WN brushes. One thing I personally recommend though is the material. I've used both cheap synthetics and pricier natural fibre. Synthetics are good for drybrushing, and clean easier I find, but for layering, washing, glaze and drybrush I would never go near anything but natural fibre. I tried synthetics briefly and it just doesn't hold the paint or form the way you want. But that's just me.