Are You Using the Wrong Brush for Miniature Painting?

0:00 What's your painting goal?
2:58 Synthetic brushes and what they can do
6:17 Downsides of synthetic brushes
7:35 Sponsor
8:49 Important brush properties
11:49 Pros & Cons of natural hair brushes & buying recommendations
15:57 How to clean brushes

Music by Karl Casey @WhiteBatAudio

Brushes in this Video:
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Raphael 8404:

DA VINCI MINIATURE MAESTRO 76:

DA VINCI Series 11:

DA VINCI Series 35:

DA VINCI NOVA 5570

SAX OPTIMUM

ROSEMARY & Co:

WINDSOR & NEWTON Series 7:

ESCODA:

DRYBRUSHES:

MASTER'S BRUSH CLEANER (keeps your brushes alive!)

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#warhammer
#paintingwarhammer
#miniaturepainting
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This channel is about painting miniatures for your warhammer, infinity, warmachine & d&d games, as well as age of sigmar and warhammer 40k. space marines, space wolves, sisters of battle, stormcast eternals, beastclaw raiders, mawtribes, cities of sigmar, chaos space marines. Also painting different scale models and miniature busts! How to paint NMM. How to paint warhammer, how to paint D&D figures.

[Omegaterrain]

What's interesting is how Kolinsky Sable has been the go-to standard for decades within the miniature painting hobby. If you look back from painting guides in the late 1970s early 1980's, they always recommend Kolinsky Sable brushes.

[theanimaster]

14:06 THIS!!! Takes a famous YouTuber to get the idea across and I’m glad it’s FINALLY been said!!

[JoeHardacre]

Great to see Rosemary and Co getting a shout out - incredible value for money and in my experience their brushes have had longevity that W&N and Raphael brushes havent matched.

[MrAltF]

You told me about the Raphael's years ago and ever since I've used the for the moments I need the most control over my paint, and will NEVER look back.

Thank you ❤

[Strangeractor]

This is probably the best brush overview video I've seen. Very thorough, and provides balanced information about brushes for different kinds of painters of different skill levels. I've had decent luck with Raphael 8404, and terrible experiences with Da Vinci and WN, at least for natural hair. For those in the US, there is a local option that is my go-to brush brand and has been since I discovered them a year or two ago: Scharff. They are based in Georgia and their series 3000 red sable brushes are my favorites. I would say that the belly is probably not quite as big as an 8404, but they keep a great point. They are easy to get in the US, the quality control is excellent, they are durable, and their customer service is also top notch. They aren't cheap, but I've not had one that has worn out yet.

[jamesgreen]

Raphael 8404 has been great for me. Keep in mind most of the brush brands come from the same factory and a lot of it is just branding

[DeusNyx]

This video is wise advice, I wish I had it when I started in this hobby.
I've been painting minis for 2ish years now. The first time I ventured into Games workshop, I had no idea about brushes, but I knew I wanted to start painting, I told the shop guy this and he must've seen me as a bank(Gullible more like!) The next thing I know is, he's selling me Citadels White brushes(£9 each!) for basing and layering and one for detail - giving me a spiel that these brushes will last you a long time, they're the best, blah, blah, blah....
I got home to discover the base brush that sits at a weird angle, has a few hairs that doesn't want to sit like its' friends. And the layer brush likes to split down the centre the minute it even looks at water!
The best brush I've used(so far) was the starter brush that came in the Warhammer paint and tool set - that brush still sits straight 2 years later!
Learn from my mistakes folks, do your research.

[MarchHare]

This was a super helpful video! It's been over 30 years since I last painted minis, and I'm hoping to get back into the hobby soon. Back then I had no clue about brushes - which ones to use, how to use them, or how to properly care for them. This video will make such a difference when I get started again!

[AlexWood-wzpp]

This is a small idea, but the video you did 8 months ago trying the “Adrian smith paint scheme” was amazing and inspired my army alongside many others army. I loved it so much and your tutorials are so effective. I’d love to see you paint more of that scheme in the future.

[ConceptonLoL]

I bought 2 Raphael 1 year ago on your recommendation ( and affiliate link ;) and was scared of using them for quite a while. I started using them a few weeks ago and was blown away by the difference they make compared to standard GW brushes . Love it!

[LinkieNecronLore]

I have been using a size 3 Monument Pro-Stable brush.
It is my go to for its size, and it’s super fine point.
I definitely recommend them for new painters, or pros!

[gamesmusic]

I always went with natural hair brushes, as I often heard, that synthetic brushes would give less quality and can not replace natural hair ones. In addition I also did not want to support the production of more synthetic/plastic for the environment... .

Then, however, I learned that most of this natural hair is coming from countries where there exist no, or really bad animal protection laws. There they breed for example especially red martens (for the Kolinsky brushes) and badgers in really small cages and really bad care, ... just so I can put some color on some plastic? Therefore I looked into the brands and was also willing to pay much more if I would see for a certificate for the hair from responsible sources, or at least the origin country. However, you nearly NEVER find one. Usually brush companies get this product from big material sales companies ordering bunches of hair... and if they are expensive this is usually due to quality and length of the hair, not animal wellfare.

So I reconsidered... synthetic brushes are still usually recyclable (when you separate the synthetic, Metal and wood components), they usually have less synthetic hair than a tooth brush, and there is extra effort put into the production of synthetic hair brushes, so they perform similar to real hair ones, ultimately avoiding animal cruelty. While on the other hand martens or badgers maybe got all their claws and teeth extracted, so they can not damage the product growing on their back... .

I couldn't buy another natural hair brush any more without thinking about the cruel pictures of their harvest. I gladly take the less good painting results.^^

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This is just another aspect I wanted to add to the brushes topic (this btw counts also for other natural hair paint brushes. Look yourself how often you find the origin of the brush hair in the brushes at your home). Everyone, however, is free to chose what they prefer, or what they need. Maybe some don't have the money to afford expensive ones which really care about animal wellfare regarding their hair sources, or if you are really into competition, small differences may in the end make the difference in winning or not, or if your results on a painting youtube channel look promising enough to be considered professional.

So this comment is no offence to you or anyone using natural hair brushes. It was just something I stumbled upon when starting to paint minis. And I don't want this topic to be taken by anyone to start an out cry or hate against natural hair painters. If anyone wants to blame someone, start to demand according guarantees from brush producers (but please in a respectful way) or vote with your money and go for synthetic ones...

[pepi]

havent clicked faster on a video before
thanks for this insight! i too notice that I share the sentiment of better brushes make life easier after i bought a W&S Series 7. now that I saw that the terrible brush tip is just something inherent to the newer W&S brushes, im willing to try the ones you recommended for the perfect brush tip!

[Matt-tbun]

Painting since the mid 90's. Switched to the Raphael 8404 in 2017 and felt bad it took me that long. It was the most impactful change ive ever made in the hobby.

[terrencemiltner]

I would love a video about how to test the different types of brushes and maybe some practice extercises to try and build a little confidence before tackling a mini that we want to paint better than tabletop

[nulnoiltycoon]

Nice informative video.
I use a lot of Rapahel 8404s... they have some of the best bristles on a terrible handle. I'd pay more for them to leave the stupid sticker off and I'd pay a bit more for them to use a better lacquer that doesn't dissolve when it gets wet.

[jacobtaylor]

Been a Commission painter for 4 years and swapped to a Raphael 8404 for personal painting and high quality jobs. The jump in quality and my brush controll was dramatically.

[nofixedcourse]

Great video with a lot of useful stuff for beginners. I got told off once for recommending good brushes to a beginner, but my theory is the same as yours, you shouldn't have to fight against the tools you're working with, it makes learning so much more difficult. I've got an 8404 for when I want to get serious, and I've been using Revell Luxus (size 1 and 0) for the last 6 months as workhorse brushes, they've surprised me, despite being only £6, they keep a decent point for a long time, although the belly could be bigger.

[Stixs]

I have two Raphael 8404 size 0 & 1 they are great love them to bits!! Love the belly and sharp tip 👌🏼

[Vortid]

Always good to here an experienced artist's take on tools.

Personally I avoid animalic products, so I don't like using sable, though I do own a nice one. It's definately something that you need to find workarounds for. Some things I've found:
-I tried a lot of high quality (or at least expensive) synthetics, but nope, the ones that work best for very thin lines are the ones I get for less than a euro at the local art store.
-Mediums can help. With sable I don't think you need much help, but flow improver and retarder is helpful for synthetics.
-It's just not possible to retain as much paint in the brush. I don't think bigger synthetic brushes work that well anyway, the paint don't want to come off. So usually I use pretty small brushes, which is more time consuming but at least it works. You touched on this in the video. Some workarounds are flat brushes sometimes for base coats, and using two brushes for wet blending.

I hope Kimera sends you a review product of their new synthetic brushes, would be great to get your input and know if they are useful as actual high quality brushes.