For starters do your shopping at a store specifically geared toward art supplies like Aaron Brothers where you will find a much better selection and quality then you would at a discount super mart. The brushes commonly found at your everyday big box stores are geared toward amateurs and weekend crafters and won't hold up as long forcing you to go out and replace them more often. My brushes cost me $5-12 each but in the end if you need to replace a $2 brush twice in less time than it takes for the $5 brush to wear out, you've equalized the costs. Now lets take a more in depth look at brushes keeping in mind the brands and types I have listed are not to be taken as the only choice there is. Find what you're comfortable using and go with it!
Why use a paint brush?
While it's generally accepted you should use a spray can or airbrush to lay in the base coats, fine details like handles and levers or straps on cargo need to be picked out with a brush. Where an airbrush you need to change the color cup and clean it, with a paint brush you can blend colors on the spot which is why you will always see figures painted with a brush save for the base color. And while airbrushes can paint lines as thin as a human hair sometimes the effort of setup and cleaning can take all of the fun out of a build in a heartbeat. It's a hobby eh? Why not make it enjoyable? I actually find sitting back with a brush in hand painting say a 54mm figure a pretty good way to chill out. Washes, dry brushing, and pastel weathering all need a wide assortment of brushes as well to get good results.
Parts of a paint brush
- Handle: This is what you use to grip the brush of course. Handles come in a variety of sizes and shapes to increase grip. These may include round, square, or triangular. Some may be thinner with a fat spot in the middle while others have a thick handle overall. Personally I like a round handle brush with a thinner diameter, however the shape that suits you is open.
- Bristles: This is the part of the brush that really matters. Bristles come in two main types, synthetic and those made from various animal hair. You will want a soft brush that has a bit of spring to it and maintains it's point well. In the animal hair camp, sable does the best job of this and for years was considered the absolute best brush one could buy before synthetic technology caught up. In the early days synthetic brushes were made from nylon and tended to have thick bristles, however modern synthetics may rival or even bypass the best sable. The choice is yours, personally I prefer synthetics because after trying both I just like the feel of a synthetic fiber brush better.
- Ferrule: This is the metal collar that joins the bristles to the handle. Ideally the bristles should be joined to the ferrule with glue and the ferrule joined tightly to the handle. On less expensive brushes (and I know this from experience) the ferrule tends to be joined to the bristles and handle with weak or no glue. This can cause a loaded brush to literally come apart from the handle or worse shed it's bristles on your project.
Paint brushes are identified by a number to identify their size with 0 and below indicating very small sizes and 1 and above very large. The exception to this rule is flat brushes which are usually identified as 1/4" or 1/2" flats. Keep in mind in purchasing a selection of brushes I like to stick to the SAME manufacturer for all my brushes. Why is this? Brush sizing is not an industry standard nor regulated. That being said a 00 brush from one supplier will vary greatly from a 00 of a different supplier, possibly one being larger than the other or having longer bristles. So what should you have in stock at your bench? Really it depends what your doing. My collection consists of Windsor & Newton University Series #0, 00, 000, 0000, 1, 2, 3 round 1/16",1/8", 1/4", 1/2" flat and a few misc. others that will be discussed in the next section.
Shapes of brushes
Paint brushes come in an extremely wide variety of shapes. These shapes were designed with creating humn shapes, trees, buildings, and foliage on a canvas, however we as model builders have adapted them to suit our purposes. Some are very useful, while others are sort of useful, and yet others are not useful at all.
- Round: The most common type of brush out there. They can be identified by a round shape with bristles that taper to a point. I use these all the time for small details and figures so having a wide variety of sizes on hand is a good idea.
- Flat: Flat brushes fall in to a smaller category, mainly figures and broader areas such as wood inserts in muscle car interiors and figures. I find them incredibly useful for blending oils on 54mm figures where I want to leave a minimum of brush strokes visible in the finish. Flat brushes also fall in the weathering category for applying washes on large surfaces such as aircraft wings and armored vehicle hulls.
- Chisel: Much like a flat brush except the end is tapered like a chisel making it good for hitting broad areas while at the same time being able to work in to corners. I have a couple of sizes on hand for the above mentioned wood grain inserts on muscle cars.
- Fan: Fan brushes have very limited use in modeling. These brushes were designed to apply paint with a stabbing motion or quick upward strokes to mimic grass on a canvas. I've had one on hand for years I have never used, the most I could possibly see using it for is to add mud detail to 1:35 armor fenders or something like that.
- Filbert: A filbert is kind of a combo round/flat brush except instead of the edge being straight across, the edge is cut in to an arc. Personally I don't own one as I never saw a use for it that a flat couldn't cover.
- Rigger: Exactly like a round except with extremely long bristles. The idea behind these was to paint the rigging on sailing ship prints. You could use one of these if you really need to paint a long line, otherwise skip getting any.
There are no set rules for using a brush but there are a few common sense prctices that will extend the life of your brush and give you better results overall. Firstly don't use your paint directly from the jar. This can lead to contamination of colors and cause the paint to thicken and dry up, especially on the threads leading to crusty bits of paint and stuck lids that lead to undue aggravation and swear words. I use plastic pallettes I grabbed at Wal-Mart on the cheap to dole out a small amount of paint. Ideally the paint should have a very slight amount of thinner added to it as well and in the case of acrylic paints a small amount of retarder added will increase the working time if you need to paint alot of space. You don't need to drench the bristles with paint, just dip the ends of the bristles in the thinned paint. Dipping too much of the bristle in to the paint can cause crusty buildup around the ferrule that can come off on your project ruining your day.When you actually start laying paint, use a very light touch. Pressing, jabbing, and scrubbing are unnecessary and can damage the bristles leading to early retirement of a perfectly good brush.
Cleaning and storage
The type of cleaner you use depends on the type of paint used. For solvent based enamels and oils use mineral spirits from the hardware store. Hobby and art manufacturers produce their own recommended thinner which is the same item at 3x the cost for a smaller quantity. Water based paints can be cleaned with Windex or 91% rubbing alcohol diluted with a small amount of water. I prefer Windex as it tends to not dry my bristles out as much. Never use the product jar to clean your brushes in. Keep an old spice jar, jelly jar what have you set aside and distribute the thinner in to that for cleaning. Thinner gets contaminated very fast while cleaning your brushes becoming cloudy with lots of sediment at the bottom. Every so often use a piece of fine mesh to strain out this sediment and give your thinner a little longer working life. My rule of thumb is to dispose of the thinner entirely once a week or so depending how dirty it is and replace it with a fresh jar. When you actually clean your brush gently swirl it in the thinner and wipe it on a paper towel until the bristles are clean. Never, ever press the bristles on the bottom of the jar as this can damage them. While wiping never pinch, pull, or roll the bristles between your fingers because, how many times have I said it now, this damages them. When your painting session is completely done for the day, gently wash your brushes in lukewarm soapy water and store them in an upright container for drying. You can use your fingers here to gently restore the point. Never use that old schooler trick of using your teeth to reshape a brush. This is extremely unhealthy. Most quality brushes come with a plastic tube over the bristles which can be replaced to protect the tip until they're next use.
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