How many brushes is enough?

[fsn]

We often hear about the quality of brushes and other equipment, but what about the quantity?

I find that I tend to use 3 brushes what are technically called "medium", "small" and "no I can't really see that" for painting, plus another for applying washes. I have some others for dry brushing and stippling but they don't get used as much.

I have one Xacto craft knife, plus the Dremel which I use for just about everything.

I have a number of files (3), a small saw, pair of pliers, two sets of tweesers and various pokey things. The Optivisor is always to hand.

I have superglue in small tubes, PVA glue, liquid plastic cement, Bostic/UHU, glue gun and, of course, the invaluable Copydex.

So what's in your kit?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

6 (rarely used) 2 and 00 brushes. Spray white and spray varnish. Pens 0.1mm for detail markings.
Innumerable other (dead) brushes for basing, one 2 that is only used for removing excess sand and flock from figures.
Dremmel and Pin vice, scalpel, wire cutters. Printer for labels
Files, tweezers. Sugerglue, pva, cut up credit card to get straight edges when labelling basing.
Cutting mat, newspaper, BBC 6 Music.
Anglepoise lamp

[Roy]

I've quite the number of brushes. Games Workshop, Wargames Foundry, some blue handled examples I've not tested yet and Col. Bill's sell, and Army Painter. I don't use 80%+ of them!

I use an Army Painter Basecoating Brush and an Army Painter Highlighting Brush (actually several of each type, most unused, ready as replacements). I also use a Foundry Drybrush, as I like the flat, wide squared profile of the bristles. I've an old Army Painter brush for washes, and a really old (found somewhere) brush for PVA gluing. All are synthetic fibres.

So, when I paint a 28mm figure, it'll normally be three brushes I'll use.

[1] Big, old brush to undercoat.
[2] A paint brush to block in the layers
[3] An old paint brush to apply a shade wash to the figure.

[2]Back to the second brush to paint in contrast layers and the majority of the details.     

- [4] If there's some really fine detail, I'll use the thinner point on the Highlighting brush. But I don't use this brush every time I paint.

[Ithoriel]

24 "active" brushes - 10/0 up to a cosmetic powder brush - for ultrafine detail to large scale drybrushing.

Pot of around 50 "dead" brushes, used for glue, for removing errant sand or flock and similar tasks.

42 assorted "reserve" brushes, ready for use, still in their packaging.

Rolson "Optivisor," Dremel-style drill and bits, 3 craft knives, pin vice and bits, miniature vice to hold items being drilled, 2 G-clamps, 5 assorted files, 8 dental picks and sculpting tools for shaping putty, 4 pairs of tweezers, 3 tin snips, 2 pairs of pliers, paper guillotine, 5 pairs of scissors, assorted bits of wire, cocktail sticks, 4 rulers, 2 old toothbrushes for cleaning dust/ mould powder/ flaking paint from castings.

2 packs of quick-dry filler, 8 different glues, 3 types of sand, 3 types of gravel, 100+ pots of paint, 14 pots of ink, 3 tubs of flock, water-effect gel, Milliput, green stuff.

Doubtless I've forgotten stuff!

[Subedai]

About 40 brushes in various states: 5'O' for fine detailing, several OO and 1's, some flat ended, stiff bristled oil painting brushes in sizes from 1 to 12 for stippling and drybrushing large areas, a specific Magic Wash brush, specific and separate enamel undercoating and varnishing brushes, a 1/2 inch decorators brush for decanting base paint from the large 1L tin to a smaller jar. Plus old brushes that have curled ends for drybrushing small areas.

A number of different graded boxes of sand for basing; various types of flock, static gras, clump foliage, dried tea leaves for same.

Contact adhesive, epoxy resin, Superglue and PVA.

Over 100 jars, bottles and plastic dispenser types for paint including old jam jars for water, turps and two colours of magic Wash -brown and black. A number of thin marker pens graded from 0.7 down to 0.1. Plus an old cake plate for decanting paint onto and for mixing colours.

Tweezers, pliers, clamps, small vice, model saw, different sized files, metal and plastic rulers, craft knife, scalpel, scissors and shears, wet-and-dry paper for that final smoothing on figures, eye-dropper do accurately drop watered down PVA onto clump foliage to fix it in place, various grades of cardboard for buildings, a small crate for currently unused terrain, i.e bags of trees, hedges etc.

Two anglepoise lamps -one on each  side of my painting desk. The business end of an original 6pdr A/T shell that is heavy enough to keep one of my anglepoise lamps from falling over.

Plus any other wargaming impedimenta collected over the decades.

MickS

[skywalker]

Have about 20 in my pot from various manufactures. I know the evil empire (GW) is something not mentioned but their dry brushes were very useful.
I have a small pin vice with assorted drill sizes, a couple of pairs of clippers, a Swan Morten scalpel for most of my work but for heavy duty I have a larger X-Acto style knife, a mixed assortment of needle files, a razor saw and a magnifying lamp
On the adhesive front I have Plastic Weld and Revel Conta for plastics, super glue for metal etc and PVA for putting scenic materials on to the bases.
Paint wise I use Vallejo, Army Painter Soft and Dark Tone washes and a few old GW paints 

[d_Guy]

Have just taken an inventory.
I have a clowder ( > 50) of brushes of which five or six are my favorites and have been given names.
Five X-acto handles each fitted with a different size and style of blade (two of which are used almost exclusively for slicing my thumbs and knuckles).
A box of band-aids (many may call these "plasters" but that's what my grandmother put on her corns)
Superglue, white glue, and glue sticks..
Various lights and magnifiers (some of which are both).
A 1/2" brush (purchased with the idea it might speed things up - it didn't).
An egg of Silly Putty.
An assortment of various dental and surgical tools (having little to do with painting but there they are)
One of my best purchases ever - a cordless micro Dremel.
A tube each of yellow and blue stuff to make green stuff.

[Orcs]

I have

6 Brushes that are used regularly, plus 10 or so others in my brush pot and another 20 in reserve
A dozen files (one set I picked up at Lidl for £2 which are ok)
Two craft knives with flexible plastic handles that are used for prying figures off bases, applying texture etc
2 Surgical quality scalpels that are so much nicer to hold than standard ones.
1 normal scalpel
1 retractable scalpel for going on holiday with
A dremel
Wire cutters
Miniature pliers
Squadron plastic filler - works on metal as well
PVA
Superglue (8 tubes a £1 from poundland)
Superglue gel
Evostic
Polystyrene cement

Plus a very trusty and often used Optivisor

[Steve J]

Brush wise probably 4-5 that get used for all of my painting, from largeish for adding colours to bases and tanks etc, through to very fine for webbing etc. Tool wise I have a huge range, as my day job is a modelmaker. Then at work I have access to lots of nice toys

[Fenton]

I have 3 brushes. One for  painting  detail, one for drybrushing and one for washes

Oh I have another for PVA

[d_Guy]

As an add-on, how many fingers is enough fingers?

I recently bought some painted 10mm's (Pendraken as it happens) during Ian Hind's 20% off sale. Today I am debasing them.
The two afore mentioned X-acto's (with different size chisel blades) are my primary tools. Here is the status of by left hand after four hours:


Im not as quick as I used to be.

[paulr]

Have you tired soaking the bases and figures in water for a few hours? If they used PVA (while glue) they should be easy to remove

[d_Guy]

That's an excellent idea. That's what I do with my own painting sticks but these are on finished bases and some sort of gum based glue was used that does not appear to be water soluble. I'm finished for the day so I'll run a test tonight and see if it helps.

[d_Guy]

Have you tired soaking the bases and figures in water for a few hours? If they used PVA (while glue) they should be easy to remove

Paul,I just checked the test batch after about a 5 hour soak. I can now pick them of the bases like ripe grapes!
I thank you and my remaining figures thank you. 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Paul,I just checked the test batch after about a 5 hour soak. I can now pick them of the bases like ripe grapes!
I thank you and my remaining figures thank you. 

Is that 'remaining figures' or 'remaining fingers'