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Hey folks, I'm approaching a need to replace my decade old collection, and I wanted to get the community's opinion on favorite tools of the trade.

Scharff series 3000 are my personal favorite. Raphael 8404 are pretty good, too.

I use a mix of Citadel and Army Painter brushes. They work pretty good.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Scharff series 3000 are my personal favorite. Raphael 8404 are pretty good, too.

and obligatory W&N Series 7 which i use

When I first started out painting minis I bought a set of brushes from The Armory. It had a ton of them and I used them for years and still have some as trash brushes, they were great. When I found I needed new brushes I usually just picked a Citadel brush while buying paint at the local GW. I recently picked up Winsor&Newton Series 7 sable hair brushes and wow are they amazing. I really never thought a brush could just feel better but they do and you will see better results the first time you use them. I have since started picking up Winsor&Newton galeria brushes at michaels and I love them as well. I also picked up some Army Painter brushes recently but I didn't really like them and I flat out hated their "Insane Detail" brush.

Will raise hand for WN S7 as my favorite brand, too.

@zeragrin - the Winsor Newton Galleria brushes are very coarse, and some of them are extremely long bristle, which make them perfect for painting metallic paints over large areas, or painting up terrain. I have almost the whole set of big Galleria brushes (like 1/4" and up) and I use them regularly for things like Realm of Battle boards.

Like you, I don't like the AP Insane Detail brush. It just doesn't, well... hold any paint I really like the AP Regiment brush, though. I use that to apply paints like Typhus Corrosion. It's a natural hair brush (not sable), a little coarser, so it's more durable, and importantly, it's easy to tell apart from my good brushes, so I don't accidentally plunk a Series 7 into a paint that's harsh on the brush.

As a UK resident I have to shout out for Rosemary & co. 33 series. Very nearly W&N 7 quality for half the price.

I do have and utilise W&N 7 series size 1 and 0 brushes, but I do the majority of my painting with R & co. these days.

I used to use AP brushes and cheap sable ones from art shops, they did a job, but, by comparison an with the benefit of hindsight, they were terrible at holding a point.

W&N 7 here too, though I have gotten one or two that i feel were poor representatives of the line. I use those on the best models for the finest details... anything cheap is best for my general basecoat/drybrush/wash/grunt work. The golden taklon, white whatever, and pretends-to-be-sable/hair are all great when considered as expendable.

Raphael 8404. Prefer them to W&N Series 7 because of the bigger reservoir. Nothing wrong with the Series 7s, they just don't hold as much paint.

 Talys wrote:
Will raise hand for WN S7 as my favorite brand, too.

@zeragrin - the Winsor Newton Galleria brushes are very coarse, and some of them are extremely long bristle, which make them perfect for painting metallic paints over large areas, or painting up terrain. I have almost the whole set of big Galleria brushes (like 1/4" and up) and I use them regularly for things like Realm of Battle boards.

Like you, I don't like the AP Insane Detail brush. It just doesn't, well... hold any paint I really like the AP Regiment brush, though. I use that to apply paints like Typhus Corrosion. It's a natural hair brush (not sable), a little coarser, so it's more durable, and importantly, it's easy to tell apart from my good brushes, so I don't accidentally plunk a Series 7 into a paint that's harsh on the brush.

I'm still new to the sable hair brushes, what types of paint are bad for them?

zeragrin wrote:

 Talys wrote:
Will raise hand for WN S7 as my favorite brand, too.

@zeragrin - the Winsor Newton Galleria brushes are very coarse, and some of them are extremely long bristle, which make them perfect for painting metallic paints over large areas, or painting up terrain. I have almost the whole set of big Galleria brushes (like 1/4" and up) and I use them regularly for things like Realm of Battle boards.

Like you, I don't like the AP Insane Detail brush. It just doesn't, well... hold any paint I really like the AP Regiment brush, though. I use that to apply paints like Typhus Corrosion. It's a natural hair brush (not sable), a little coarser, so it's more durable, and importantly, it's easy to tell apart from my good brushes, so I don't accidentally plunk a Series 7 into a paint that's harsh on the brush.

I'm still new to the sable hair brushes, what types of paint are bad for them?

Metallics and technical paints. Really anything with grit in it will chew up the hair. Also, stay away from washes as it gets wicked up into the ferrules.

 Gordon Shumway wrote:

zeragrin wrote:

 Talys wrote:
Will raise hand for WN S7 as my favorite brand, too.

@zeragrin - the Winsor Newton Galleria brushes are very coarse, and some of them are extremely long bristle, which make them perfect for painting metallic paints over large areas, or painting up terrain. I have almost the whole set of big Galleria brushes (like 1/4" and up) and I use them regularly for things like Realm of Battle boards.

Like you, I don't like the AP Insane Detail brush. It just doesn't, well... hold any paint I really like the AP Regiment brush, though. I use that to apply paints like Typhus Corrosion. It's a natural hair brush (not sable), a little coarser, so it's more durable, and importantly, it's easy to tell apart from my good brushes, so I don't accidentally plunk a Series 7 into a paint that's harsh on the brush.

I'm still new to the sable hair brushes, what types of paint are bad for them?

Metallics and technical paints. Really anything with grit in it will chew up the hair. Also, stay away from washes as it gets wicked up into the ferrules.

Thanks for the heads up.

My personal favorite brush that I do 90% of my work on is a Rosemary and Co. Series 22 size 1. The series 22 and 33 are both excellent. As good if not better than Winsor and Newton Series 7 (which are also fabulous brushes).

I heard about the Raphael 8404 and got some when I was in France and was disappointed. I use the citadel dry brushes because they're actually top notch. Overall though, I love Rosemary and Co. and I've gotten a variety of brushes from them in various types and sizes (I actually have an order from them coming in this week) and they're really great products.

I personally really have two brushes that I use for detail work :

Vallejo Toray P515 01
Da Vinci Maestro Tobolsky Kolinsky 10

Otherwise I use either the citadel brushes for Basecoats / glazes / drybrush.

I prefer Windsor and Newton series 7 for detail work and any good art store brush in the £3-5 range for other uses.

Another vote for W&N series 7. My painting has definitely improved since making the change.

I am by far not a good painter, but since I got my W&N Series 7 size 1 and 0 my painting improved by 200%.
Another thing was actually taking care of my brushes since this helped keeping a good tip ;-)

Aeri wrote:
I am by far not a good painter, but since I got my W&N Series 7 size 1 and 0 my painting improved by 200%.
Another thing was actually taking care of my brushes since this helped keeping a good tip ;-)

This. Since I discovered "The Masters" brush cleaner my brushes have lasted so much longer and perform way better.

+1 for the Masters's reference. Don't clean natural hair brushes with regular soaps, and certainly never with dish soap.

I like my W&N series 7. I also have an IMEX 3/0 sable brush which is fairly nice for the money-- not too much-- which I also use.

Same old wn7.

However i wonder whats everyone's preferred synthetic brush for oil washing type application. or alcohol based paint things.

 sockwithaticket wrote:
As a UK resident I have to shout out for Rosemary & co. 33 series. Very nearly W&N 7 quality for half the price.

I do have and utilise W&N 7 series size 1 and 0 brushes, but I do the majority of my painting with R & co. these days.

I used to use AP brushes and cheap sable ones from art shops, they did a job, but, by comparison an with the benefit of hindsight, they were terrible at holding a point.

Indeed, more affordable! I've ordered a set of these thanks to yours and others recommendations!