The Loose Association of Wargamers

The last three weeks have seen a tremendous amount of painting activity from me.

This means quite not only an impressive number of figures completed but also quality (for me- anyone else might describe them as "mediocre at best")and, most importantly, enjoyment.

There are several factors at play here. I'm on holidays with - thanks to Covid- no where to go. Otherwise I'd be in London giving my girl's new Novio the once over. So I have time. I'm also revelling in the figures. They're mainly Tumbling Dice which are a joy to paint. But not least is the issue of paint brushes.

I'm currently using a core of 4 of the best I've ever had. Brushes can be hit-and-miss but these, several months old & well seasoned, are just about perfect.

Three are W&N sables: 0, 1 &2. The fourth is a Citadel dry brush.

Eventually, they'll all start to fade & be relegated to lesser duties. There's a philosophical point to be made here but instead I'll wander off to contemplate what colour(s) exactly are "mouse skin" for my Huns. Shades of the Gray Mouser & Fafhrd.

donald

I got recommended the citadel drybrush and love it. I have a lot of brushes these days, a case of good ones and a huge box of junk kids art brushes I use as single use gloss varnishing brushes.

I'm sure there are brush cleaning fluids for acrylics out there that are meant to prolong the life of your favs but I think a trick is regular washing out if using for a time on a number of figures.

I do use a brush cleaner (Chroma Incredible Brush Cleaner) periodically & Vallejo brush restorer frequently.
I think it prolongs brush-life a bit.

You do get the pundits who claim they can paint pin-stripes on a 6mm French fusilier with a cheap, 6" house painting brush
but I think the enormous expense of good brushes is worth it.

donald

I used to buy W&N Series7 brushes but a run of one's loosing their points led me to look elsewhere. I bought Sable brushes from Coritani for about £2 and found they did the job just as well. Then I bought a ProArte40 sable brush from ABC Brushes at a show for £1.50 and found it a revelation in keeping its point and hard wearing. So I bought a job lot of Size O from their remainder box at 3 for £5. So far I'm on my third brush from about 20 I've bought, each one has painted over 300 28mm infantry, cavalry and artillery pieces so I'm done with expensive brushes.

I won't tell you how much I pay for W&N- you'll lose all respect for me.

I googled ProArte but there's no supplier in OZ (typical!) so, sadly (& I mean sadly), I'll be stuck with the expensive W&N......
(BTW I won't say only sable is good but I think mostly).

donald