Brushes

Brushes are probably the single most important tool that you will use on your miniatures. Good brush selection, care and use forms a small but very significant part of the hobby. There are a multitude of brushes available and should be selected according to the intended task, budget, medium (type of paints used). By selection I am referring to the quality and the type of bristles used in the brush. Appropriate and good selection of these bristles will make painting a lot easier and more enjoyable, not to mention it is easier on the wallet too.

This article will cover my personal preferences for brushes and hopefully provide useful tips on brush selection and care. There are a few categories of brushes the main ones which I will cover below,

• "Tank Brushes" (Large Area Brush)
• Drybrush
• Standard Brushes
• Detail Brushes
• Fine Detail

When it comes to brushes and selection there is a continuum with tradeoffs between the amount of paint that is held by the bristles and the amount of control and detail available.

A large brush will hold more paint but a reduced ability to paint smaller and finer areas, conversely finer detail brushes hold significantly less paint but offer a greater ability to paint smaller areas. Hence choosing your brush for the task at hand is crucial.

Tank Brushes (Large Brushes)
These are used for models with very large flat areas. They hold a lot more paint but because of the size of the bristles offer reduced control for painting smaller areas and detail. These brushes are great for drybrushing entire models, painting large flat areas on tanks or terrain. Points to look for in these brushes are hard-wearing bristles and a sufficiently large brush tip.

Drybrushes
Drybrushes are very specific brushes designed specifically for use with the technique of dry brushing. The bristles on these brushes have to be very hard wearing as they are used quite ‘aggressively’ on models. They typically come in various sizes allowing drybrushing to be done on different sized areas. A bigger brush will simply allow drybrushing of a larger area and a smaller on for finer details. Do not drybrushing is typically a ‘messier’ technique so getting a mid sized brush usually suffices. Larger drybrushes come in handy if you are painting terrain or much larger models. Drybrushing does destroy brushes quite quickly and there are varying schools of though. I believe that getting a brush specific for drybrushing is a good idea as it will probably save you time and money.

Medium/Standard Brush
I refer to a medium or standard sized brush as the brush that attempts to bridge the gap between a brush that holds a moderate amount of paint and offers moderate control. I find this is the brush I typically use the most, if you really wanted to you should be able to accomplish most tasks with this brush. That is to say the bristles should come to a fine enough point to allow you to paint relatively fine details and lines but still hold enough paint to be able to paint decent sized ‘sections’ on your miniature.

Fine detail and extra fine detail brushes as the name suggests are great for the really fine details, lettering, eyes, highlighting faces, hands and any small areas that might otherwise be impossible to paint with a bigger bristled brush.

Detail Brush
A detail brush is a brush that is fine enough to handle intricate details yet holds enough paint to allow you to paint a decent sized area. I find these brushes great for intermediate highlights, painting gemstones, lining in certain areas and highlighting hair, faces and hands.

Fine Detail Brush
Fine detail brushes can come to an extremely fine tip. These brushes offer the largest amount of control but hold very little paint, they also tend to dry fairly quickly. They are great for finishing highlights, the whites of eyes and any other delicate and extremely small details. The downside of this is since they don't hold much paint you'll have to keep going back to your palette and ensuring the bristles remain loaded with paint.