Paint Brush Maintenance Interlude!

Hey all...

I thought I'd do something a little different today and show you how I maintain my brushes.  I know a lot of people burn through brushes pretty quick, or end up using these ragged, sad looking things until the end of time.  I tend to try to maintain and take care of my brushes and find that I don't have to replace them that often.  I'll go years using the same standard brush from GW...  and yes, I use GW brushes.  They work just fine and they're super easy to get your hands on.  I know a lot of people recommend other things, but honestly...  I think it comes down more to technique than anything.  A bad painter with good tools paints bad models.  A good painter with mediocre tools paints good models!  The good painter just gets pissed and buys better tools.  The moral of this story is that before you worry about the quality of your brushes, you should worry about how you're using them!  Haha.

Anyways...  I do the following more or less monthly.

First I gather together all of my paint brushes.  I don't really use that many different kinds.  I DO actually use the three large dry brushes all the time.  Having three keeps me from having to fully dry them between colors.

Anyways, the magic is this stuff.  "The Master's Brush Cleaner and Preserver".  It's available pretty much anywhere brushes are sold.  I get mine at A.C. Moore in the US.  It's basically brush soap with some wax in it.

Add a little water and work your brushes through it.  If you're brushes are really dirty, the lather that works up will have some color to it.  Keep wiping it off and going until the lather is all white...  unless your brushes are caked with white paint, at which point you're screwed.

I got this little brush dryer thing at a hobby store.  I have no idea what it's called, but you can probably find one at a solid arts and crafts store or on Amazon.

So, a little knowledge about brushes.  The metal band near the bristles is called a ferrule.  Inside the ferrule, the bristles are glued in and the ferrule keep everything nice and tight.  If paint gets into the ferrule, it dries and causes the bristles to splay apart.  If water gets into the ferrule, it can dissolve the glue over time and causes the bristles to fall out.  I hang the brushes upside down after using them so that any residual water moves down the bristles and away from the ferrule.  It's a minor thing, but it also serves as a good place to store the brushes.

And we're all done!  Takes about 15 minutes for my brushes.  I generally watch TV while doing it.  I think I was watching an episode of Murder She Wrote while doing this.  Oh, Jessica Fletcher...  you're my best friend.

Project #6 - 40k Terran Quake Cannon Craters - Complete

I was able to get a little bit of time to myself to sit down and complete these guys.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  I didn't go crazy on the tiny details, but then when you're dealing with terrain, I don't think it makes sense to.  I just went through and painted most of the wreckage bits int he same sort of pseudo-military green color with all of the aquilas done in gold.  I think they'll dress up the battlefield nicely.

It's hard to tell in this first pic, but there is a dry brushed layer of Skavenblight Dinge over the black basecoat over most of the model.  I tried to avoid the wreckage bits...  but I didn't try too hard.

Next I hit the rocky areas with some Adminstratum Grey.  Again, this was a dry brushed layer.

I hit the wreckage bits with a quick dry brush of Straken Green.  It's important to note that I wasn't particularly worried about cleanliness.  This is terrain.  It's not a showcase model.

A light dry brush of Screaming Skull over top of the green.

I dry brushed Steel Legion Drab over the interior part of the crater.  Steel Legion Drab tends to be my mid point for basing, so this will keep my terrain tied into the rest of my models.

I picked out all of the skull and skeleton bits with Screaming Skull.  There are quite a few of them!  Makes me wonder how old these craters are that the bodies have been reduced to bone.

Aquilas got a little Gehenna Gold.

Lastly, I decided that the rocks weren't bright enough, so I hit the edges with a little White Scar to make them really pop.

And there you have it.  The craters aren't glued together, so it's really eight halves that you can either make four craters out of or give yourself lots of battlefield "walls".

Project #6 - 40k Terrain Quake Cannon Craters - Primed

I picked these up at a game swap/auction for next to nothing.  I figured you can never have too much scatter terrain.  Craters are also nice because they can be used to represent exploded vehicles.  I'm thinking that these will be pretty easy to get painted up pretty quickly.  Terrain is nice because it's normally just a series of dry brush layers.  These craters might be a little tougher because they have a fair amount of details.  Ruined tank treads, ammo crates, etc.

They're actually pretty nice.  Each half slots together with another half to make a full crater.  Alternately, you can use them in a row as a type of cover granting wall.

Project #5 - 40k Orks Deff Dred and Killa Kans - Complete

I had painted one of the Killa Kans to about half completion way back many moons ago.  I wanted to knock these out and get them on the display shelf, so I spent an evening finishing them.  Here's the progression.  I really like how the ghetto OSL glow worked out.

First step is to do a light dry brush of Xereus Purple over more or less the entire model and then fill in a couple of armor panels with the same color.

I then dry brushed Leadbelcher onto the bits that I wanted to be silver.

Genestealer Purple gave me a quick and dirty line highlight on the areas I'd previously based completed in Xereus Purple.

I used Zandri Dust to paint on some zags and checks.  I also painted the tusks, but forgot to take a pic.

The eye and a couple of other wires and electrical bits got painted with Blazing Orange.

Standard basing...  Rhinox Hide heavy dry brush followed by...

...Steel Legion Drab dry brush and a light dry brush of Flayed One Flesh.  That pic has somehow disappeared.

Afterwards, I based the rim with Steel Legion Drab.

Moot Green was dry brushed onto the underside of the model and onto areas of the base.  I put it where I thought you'd see a reflection from the glowing slime I'm about to show you.

This stuff is magic.  Buy it from your local arts and crafts store.

Put on a lot of green, some yellow and a little white.  Use a toothpick to swirl it a little and pop whatever bubbles show up.

Lastly, I added some Mordheim Turf.  I'm really happy with this stuff.

And here's the crew.

I really think the reflecting glow turned out well.

The little dudes take after their big brother.

Now I just need a couple more Deff Dredds and a proper Mek in a Junka and this detachment is in business.

Project #4 - AdMech Skitarii Sydonian Dragoon - Complete

My relatively newly instituted bin project system has been doing very well at motivating me to paint.  It's making the need to paint an overwhelming collection of grey models into a very reasonable thing.

After finishing my Sicarian Infiltrators, I threw a primed Sydonian Dragoon in the freed up project bin.  I got pretty motivated after work and just muscled through this in about an hour.  Remember, my goal is to get these painted to a nice table standard in a very short period of time.  With that said, here is your painting timeline and the paints I used.

Here he is primed black with cork and sand basing.

Start off with a quick dry brush of Leadbelcher...

...followed by some Xereus Purple areas...

...and finally Balthasar Gold.  This covers the majority of the base details.  Quick and dirty.

I based the weapon and a couple of other small areas in Warpstone Glow...

...before adding a highlight of Moot Green.

The base got my standard heavy to light dry brush treatment of Rhinox Hide...

Steel Legion Drab and...

Flayed One Flesh.

Rims always get the mid tone, so in this case, more Steel Legion Drab.

Finish off with some Mordheim Turf and I'm done!  Total time to completion was about an hour, starting with a primed model.

Here are a couple of different poses.  In one, you can see the basic control panel details I did.  Again, this is a quick and dirty table standard paint job.  If I wanted to do a better job and paint more details, I would have needed to spend days and not an hour.  This will work great for the table.

Lastly, an action shot showing the entirety of my painted AdMech Skitarii forces!  Not exactly a threatening crew, but I'm getting there.  I'm not sure what will go in the project bin next, but I'm considering either a 10 man unit of Rangers I have or a 5 man box of Sicarian Ruststalkers.

Project #2 - AdMech Skitarii Sicarian Infiltrators - Complete

I had a nice day of painting and was able to complete this unit.  I was very much going for quick table standard with these guys.  You'll see in the pics below that this is all just basic dry brushing, base coating and a very small amount of detail work.  These models are highly details, but I think it's fine to leave most of the details as just brushed metal.

I started with a quick dry brush all over the model with the Leadbelcher base color.

I then coated the helmets and the boss guy's robes in Xereus Purple.

I picked out a few bits in Balthasar Gold...  mainly some leg struts and the tubes coming out of the mask.

I then painted the middle part of the melee weapon in Warpstone Glow...

...followed by a quick and dirty highlight of Moot Green.

For the base, I did a heavy dry brush of Rhinox Hide...

...followed by a lighter dry brush of Steel Legion Drab...

...and a final dry brush around the edges of Flayed One Flesh.

The rims got a coat of Steel Legion Drab.  I generally use my base mid tone as the rim color.  I find it usually matches pretty well.

To complete the bases, I glued up some random tufts of Mordheim Turf.  I love this stuff.

And that's it.  From start to finish, the unit took maybe an hour or so.  Dry brushing and basic highlighting is your friend!

Here they are with the Onager Dunecrawler I painted a bit ago.  This is the sum total of my painted AdMech forces.  I really need to get more of them painted.

And that's Project #2 complete!  Stay tuned for details on what replaces this in the project bin.