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I'm traveling overseas from the US for a vacation that will include introducing my 13 year old son who is very keen to get into 40k and painting to an old friend of mine who is a very good painter. My friend said he can get adequate paints locally, but brushes are very expensive. So I'd like to buy some brushes here to bring with me. A complication is that my flight is this week, so only items with 2-day delivery will work.

I'm looking for recoomendations for 2 things:
1. a small set of high-quality brushes for my friend.
2. A moderate number (3 to 12ish?) of medium quality (not nylon?) brushes in a generally useful size (0,1, or 2) - so for example, maybe a 10 pack of size 1 would be great.

Thanks!

I'd ask your friend what brand of brushes they like to use, if possible. If not, look for kolinsky sable brushes - my favs are Raphael 8404's, size 1. Every artist is different though - some prefer synthetics, some prefer sable, some like narrow brushes, others fuller belly styles. I'd personally not order brushes online because they're quite delicate and being handmade, every one is different (and I'm very picky). Good brushes generally do not come in ten packs, unless you're buying Rosemary & Co. wholesale. Expect to pay 5-15$ per brush.

If you're in a time crunch I'd suggest hitting up your local fine art store (if any exists nearby) to pick up brushes in person. Each one is a little different and even in the same size/brand there will be variance in quality.

My “cheep” Amazon brushes are ZEM kolinsky sables. $27 for 4 brushes, 4,2,0,00. They work.

Winser/Newton series 7 are generally recommended as high end. Not cheep, but many consider the price worth it.

There are other options. You generally want sable brushes, with kolinsky being prefered.

But there are a lot of schools of thought out there.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SKFSTZD?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1

I bought this bulk pack to save wear and tear of my nice Winsor & Newton and Rosemary & Co sable brushes, especially since Contrast paints gunk them up so quickly. They're actually good enough that they've become my primary brushes and I rarely use the sables for anything except very fine details anymore. The sizing is all wrong on them, their Size 00 is a Size 1 from other companies (and is the size I use most). Their Size 000 are actually bigger than the 00 (a little too long for my preference) and the Size 0 are tiny (skip this size, not even useful for details). For less than a quarter a brush I don't mind tossing them after a few sessions and grabbing a fresh brush