Brushes

A workman should never blame his tools but a bad paintbrush can make your life a good deal more frustrating.  Stray hairs and split bristles preventing accuracy or fibres that don't give up the paint to the surface evenly.  I'm not an expert on the science of brush construction but I have tried a good number of different brushes and makes with varried results.  Here is what I thought of a few makes and types.

These three brushes are the three I use more than any,  The yellow is a medium size brush good for corse detail and fine detailing of large flat edges.  The red is a fine detail brush with a good spring to it that has maintained its shape and is excellent for close work.  They are both made by Daler-Rowney and are available at Hobbycraft and for those in the Birmingham area, usually at Spectrum http://www.spectrumfinearts.co.uk/ (though they haven't updated the website in a while that is where they are).  All three are acrylic brushes which is great for the thicker Citadel paints though they have done well with even 1:1 water mixes and washes.

The silver brush is a small flat brush from Vallejo though the range seems to have been discontinued.  It is a Pony hair brush and excellent for dry brushing though not for applying large amounts of paint as the bristles tend to clump up.  The citadel dry brush is often in use as are a few ProArte brushes (they do a minatrue range) though these have a very short lifespan with citadel paints and don't apply the paint evenly all the time.  This does however make them great for stippling effects though at £3.75 a brush they are one of the more expensive brushes to do this with.

These brushes have been used mainly for painting Kantor at the moment with a before shot on a previous blog and a work in progress below.  The helmet gives a good example of how citadel paints, when not watered down, can leave small clumps of paint which give an organic look from a distance but a scruffy look up close.