To those people who don’t own an airbrush, what type of paintbrush do you use? Have you ever tried Tamiya brushes? In my experience the Tamiya brushes are not very good.
I don’t buy brand name paint brushes, its seems like a waste of money when I can get them that are just as good at walmart for $6 and that comes with 10 brushes. Granted 4 or 5 you will hardly, if ever, use. But you can still buy the tiny ones for $3 at most for a pack of 2 or 3. They work good, they last, and they are cheap enough if something happens, its not a big deal. They carry them in the craft section (by the fabric and cross stitching stuff).
I have a 3 pack testor brush (the white one) that I never really use, and have about 10 brush of very small size of different brand (average 3 to 5$ each) I don’t trust cheap airbrush, but I don’t pay big buck either for a brand name.
I’ve tried brushes made of different fiber bristles and found the best to use, at least with my enamels, are the brown natural soft fibers. Whenever I need to replace one (usually because my wife borrowed it for her canvas painting LOL) I check at my department stores craft department or hobby shop. I have brushes that range in price from $3.00 to $7.00 US. I bought my son a set from Wal*Mart (our local department store) in their crafts section for around $5.00 or $7.00 and it had around eight brushes in it. It came with a small size of 0 I think, but I have a few 30/0’s and/or 000’s that we can use.
Look for those brushes that are marked for “Oil Paints”.
Stay away from those that you can buy 30 for $2.00 US, the ferrules [right word?] fall off the handles when cleaning/drying the bristles on a paper towel. [:O]
Spend the extra money for a decent brush and take care of it, they can last almost forever. I still have a few that has lasted for 37+ years and seen hundreds of models or painting projects. Not a bad investment for a $4.00 paintbrush instead of a $1.50 one. [;)]
Oh, the only thing I’ve found those Testor paint brushes good for, stirring the paint when I run out of toothpicks. If anyone knows of what else they can be used for, please… I’d like to know.[:)]
I do try and get good-quality brushes. Not the “Great” quality brushes, but good quality red sable. They aren’t that expensive, tend to last a long time if they are taken care of, and the difference in results between then and the modeling brushes is like night and day. I usually get mine from Michaels since there are three of them pretty close to me. I like the “Royal” brand, and I think they typically cost about $3 each. I have some that are several years old and still are as good as the day I bought them. I also have a couple of Windsor & Newton and a couple of other brands. Take care of them and they will pay for themselves.
I use the Testors brushes for putting on glues. They work great for that!
Winsor & Newton Series 7. Expensive, about 6 or 7 bucks a pop at Dick Blick, but they’re good stuff.
I got my assortment of brushes from Ragshop, Pearl, or Michael’s. Cost about 4 to 6 dollars each, but those round tip one are well worth the money since I used to do Warhammer figure miniatures. I renewed them once so far after sustaining 6 years of abuse. I mix up a bunch of 0, 00, 10/0, 18/0, 20/0, and then some flat 4s and 5s, disregarding the brand though, so I have no preference. As long the build quality looks okay it’s fine by me. Some recent ones I got has acrylic bodies so I actually uses them to stir paints as well, thus no need for Testor’s brooms. =P
I trim them up to apply putty with…
Aye, that they are. I recently bought a few non-brand-name Kolinsky brushes for painting my backlog of wargame minis. Paid the equivalent of about 5-6 dollars each for sizes 0 and 2. For detail work, they’re worth the expense.
Thanks eizzle and Ryan for the Testor brush tips. [:D]
One thing I should have mentioned regarding my experience with paint brushes.
I went to my local craft/hobby shop, they had two different 30/0 brushes to chose from, one had a handle that was about 4" long, blue, stubby and sold for almost $7.00. The other one, that I bought, had the usual 10" or so handle and sold for around $4.00. I had to bring it back, after detailing just two models it’s looking more like a fan brush than a fine detail brush. I brought one of my 30+ year old brushes to the store to show them what I was looking for. They couldn’t believe how old it was (it did look old too LOL). They were nice enough to let me return the brush for credit towards the $7.00 one. So far so good with that one. Don’t know the brand name, never pay attention to that stuff, only when it comes to models and paint. [:I]
Strange… because the brushes I bought at Wal*Mart are doing just fine.
Go figure…
Anyone use Humbrol or Revell paintbrushes?
Any comments?