brushes and looking after them

up untill fairly recently I only ever used sable, but now synthetics are pretty good, and I tend use them more. They are a lot more hard wearing, and therefore like you say keep their shape better.

I use hayden and DAS synthetics almost exclusively now, as opposed to windsor & newton sceptre sables which used to be my staple, but are just too expensive over here for my style of painting. I tend to be pretty harsh on brushes, so the better syntheics are much more suitable.

For most general painting I use D.A.S brushes, which come with different coloured bands around the handle depending on the shape, yellow for filbert, green for round et cetera. These are generally good for laying down large areas of colour, but tend to loose their points quicker than some others.

For detail work I use D.A.S Taklon or Haydn 700 series; both synthetics, the Taklons I find are better in the very small sizes (00 and 000, whcih I don't use so often) and the Haydn for less tiny sizes (3, which I use for most detailing). Really tiny brushes are less useful than you might think, as the amount of paint they can hold means you are forever redipping, or it dries on the fibres too quick. For detailing you are better off with a larger (0, 1, 2 or 3) brush with a good tip.

For laying down larger areas of colour I still prefer sable, and my old Windsor & Newton was used for this even though it's tip was more like a dozen seperate tips pointing in different directions. It has now been relegated to the second-division brush pot, and I've bought a couple of Haydn 100 series sables in 0 and 2. These are fairly cheap, and don't look too great, but have reasonable tips, Haven't tried them yet, but we'll see how they go.

When choosing your brushes, spend as much time going through the racks as you can. Out of a rack of brushes you will generally never find two the same, some are better than others, and some will no doubt have been bashed around by other customers. Look for those that have never had the plastic tubes taken off, and even then check the tip inside. A bit of time spent now will pay off in the long run.

Since you're probably using acrylics, don't leave the paint on the brush too long or it will dry. rinse your brush regularly while painting. Don't dip the brush in the paint up too far, you never want paint on the ferrule, just about 3/4 up the bristles. Paint in the ferrule will set and ruin your brush. Storing you brushes tip up will allow any residual paint to run back into the ferrule, so store them tip down. Of course you won't leave them lying on the bristles, so put the plastic tube back on and stand them up on this. This is a simple trick a I picked up somewhere, and is well worth doing. If you've lost the tubes, cut new ones from drinking straws or similar. Something I used to do is after cleaning your brush draw the tip across a bar of bar of soap; this helps keeps the tip in shape. Not sure why I stopped doing this, it did work.

cool theres alot of useful bits in there!! i bought the hayden ones i like em and also use the daler rowney(i think thats the name)and roymac acheiver taklon.i find both of them very good and cost $3each so im not complaning with cost....do you use soap to wash them??my aunty was a pro painter(artist style not figs unfortunatly) and recommended washing them in soap and then using vaselines to fix the points during non use??

normal soap is good for me blimin brush soap!!has anybody used it before???

have you heard of people using vaseline though

i cant remeber if she was using oils(shes dead)but i had seen her work area and i never noticed it....she used to use the tube style paints alot from whittcous and stuff

Hmmm am I the exception to the rule then?

For figures I usually have one or two brushes I paint with to destruction. I typically make an effort to keep them clean (just with water mind) and paint off the ferrule, but other than that I just thrash them until they're dead. Typically they'll last 2-3 years...mainly because I'm such a slow figure painter and because well, good sable brushes just seem to last and last.

And I *ALWAYS* use sable and 00 or 000. Manufacturer I could care less about although I do seem to end up with Hadyn a lot...probably just what the local Whitcoull's sells. Never synthetics - I hate the things mainly because they just can't survive the abuse like a animal hair brush and they just don't seem to hold paint as well to me.

For terrain painting you CANNOT beat the $2 shop! Hog's bristle (the coarse white hair brushes) for everything and a mix of flat wide brushes and round brushes depending on what terrain I'm painting. Flat wide for well, flat lightly textured surfaces usually and rounds for any irregular surface. I also use hog bristle brushes for apply baby talc to RTV molds prior to resin pouring, and for actually swirling around in poured Ultracal 30 to remove bubbles. Hog bristle brushes from China actually seem to last quite well, but watch out for loose bristles when drybrushing terrain! However I'd never use a 'sable' brush from the $2 shop. Absolutely worthless because the bristles fall right out.

I've been known to stroll out with $10 worth of hog bristle brush packs from the local $2 store. The great thing is you'll usually get 4-5 brushes for that shiny gold coin...so who cares if they're tossed away after painting one piece of terrain! (although they'll usually last through a fair amount of drybrushing).

Yeah I converted. Just about anyway, prefer them for some things, but mainly it's a compromise between quality and durability, like pirate said about production line painting. Synthetics tend to be more forgiving. And I bag a lot of brushes from the $2 shop too, whenever I see a useful pack I buy them. Even if the head turn out to be rubbish you can use the handles for something.

Definately worth buying one if you can afford it, it helps to learn using good tools. Look after it and don't use it for washing or drybrushing and it will last for years. Use your cheaper brushes for harder wearing tasks.