Brushes, Brushes And A Lot More Brushes

scifimodeler

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Aug 30, 2011
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Hi there fellow modelers - I am sure this has been brought up before but I could not find it on the forum. My question is brushes. I have used a number of them without very good results. When I do use a brush, I usually only use Acrylic and or Enamels. The model shop here only carries the cheap brushes. You know the pack of 10 or 12 for 3.99. Well, these really suck. They leave streaks. I decided to check out our craft store and they have an entire (LARGE) isle of nothing but brushes ranging from 4.00 to 25.00 each. Synthetic, Sable etc. After looking at all these brushed for about an hour or so, my head started hurting and the blood was squirting out my eyes. What kind should I buy? Any help would be awesome. I'm looking for something that will brush the paint on smoothly without those damn streaks. I know I am going to have to spend some money but it will be worth it if I get the right kinds.
Thanks
 
For myself....I use nothing but Sable brushes, whether it be for Enamel, Acrylic or Lacquer (I mostly use acrylic though)

Some people scoff at the price of brushes.....but it is all in the quality, and you have to pay for quality. A higher quality brush will give you a much nicer finish, and as long as you properly take care of them, will last you alot longer.
 
i have forever used Imex brand paint brushes. They are made specific for modeling. about 6-8 dollars a brush. Just so you know brush strokes in your finish doesn't always have to do with the type of brush you are using. Its more so about technique. You can achieve brush stroke free finishes with cheap brushes.
 
A while back I burned through almost $100 worth of different brushes before figuring out what Elm just said: sable, period. Unfortunately I started by listening to the guys at the art store who advised from a fine arts perspective where the convention is stiff hog hair for oils, synthetics (nylon) for acrylic, and sable is reserved for watercolor (or VERY fine detail) because its so fragile. That doesn't take into account that pretty much everything we do as modelers is "fine detail" and much of today's acrylic techniques call for very very thin paint....water thin...almost like watercolor (see where this is going?).

Best is pure sable and I have a few of those. They are expensive and are still fragile so I have some blends of sable and nylon for more routine work (Septre Gold II is a good example). For "abuse" though, such as dry-brushing, a cheap nylon is all you want.

If you want to get a nice "detail" set I saw at elm last time I was in a real nice set of five H&S sable brushes for like $25. Super reasonable but biggest (I think) is only a 0.
 
Brushes, and open spaces of plastic are not good bed fellows. I would say that 4 or 5 coats of really thin see through layers will serve you better than 1 or 2 with an expensive brush. However, there is no substitute for practice and experience!

As for sable etc. I have just learned that frankly, there is no substitute for AIR!
 
Thanks for the responces. Maybe that was my problem of not thinning them enough. And I do agree, there is nothing better than air.. :)
 
Sable is the way to go.

I've come to be stuck on using Winsor and Newton Series 7 (regular and miniature) brushes now. I only use the cheaper brushes for the more junk work but the Series 7 never let me down. It's a bit expensive though but has been worth it to me over the years.

You can buy em from dickblick.com

Chung
 
I've heard of miniature painters using expensive Russian hog or badger hair brushes but I'm far too cheap for this. I've been using cheap-o chinese value pack brushes and I think I get good results, although some of my brushes have bifurcated and have stray strands poking out! The imex brushes are good and affordable, and I have a few of those.

I'm also still using brushes that are almost 20 yrs old! I use em for dry rushing etc. I think it's more about technique than anything.
 

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