Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Water Colour Brush, N1

Product Information

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The set main Series S set comes with 4 Brushes from Size 000 to Size 1. You can get a 5-brush case to store one of their additionally offered Size 2-6 brushes. It also comes with a little pot of brush soap. Unfortunately, there is no 9 x brush case to store the whole set. When buying this brush set, they come in a very attractive storage case which has a variety of wood finishes and a choice of engraved artworks. Find out what you do and don’t like about the performance of your current brushes and if you’re not happy, jump to a different brand when one starts to get stray hairs and needs to be replaced. With good care, all of your old brushes will remain loyal work-horses, as stipplers and smooshers at the very least. When they’ve totally had it, you can always use them as paint mixers. I still have my Games Workshop Citadel Starter brush that I got with my first paint kit over 23 years ago and yes, I still use it.To be honest, you could just get a #000 & #1 rather than either of the #00 & #0 depending on what you paint. Another good option would be a #10/0 for things like eyes, but a good pointed brush of any size can do this. Most of the preferred options are sable hair brushes, sorry synthetic brush lovers. The general view here is that they last the longest due to their ability to be thoroughly washed and conditioned with brush soaps and conditioners.

In all honesty, the optimist in me does realise that the brush names are much simpler for beginners to understand. Have a guess what a base brush is for? They are fair work-horse brushes for the price. You may be surprised to find that these are actually the cheapest brushes on the list. Approximately 50% cheaper than the average cost of brushes listed here (not including the artificer brushes) and they do the job. But many long-term painters will tell you that they just don’t last very long. and I can concur with that statement. This set features 2 Series S brushes, the #3 for 99% of your brushwork, this does everything from base colours to eyes. We include the #1 for when you need just a little more control over paint flow. the Series M #0 for absolute precision such as freehand painting or dotting your miniatures eyes. The starting point for many miniature painters, if for nothing more than the only ones people are aware of due to Games Workshop’s popularity. The range strips away the typical naming convention used in every other art brush set. The skeptic in me believes this is to reduce people’s ability to directly compare them to other brand’s brushes, keeping users invested in Games Workshop. Holding more paint, having a more reliable tip and lasting much longer than W&N makes these stand out. Made of Kolinsky Sable specifically for watercolour by Raphaël of France these are the true up-and-comer of the miniature painting range. They are also cheaper than the more Popular Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes (only 10% more expensive than the average price of brushes on this list).

Several people have asked what “Must Have” brush sizes are. Like the brushes themselves, this really depends on you but you also need to be aware that brush sizes are not at all consistent across brands.

I’ve had no issues with mine, but I’m an infrequent user and I keep them washed and clean with masters brush soap. They are an excellent choice of brush, but you are paying nearly half again on top of the Raphael 8404 Series and they are almost/over triple the cost of Rosemary & Co’s Series 22/33 respectively. If you are just interested in the Top-10 list without all the fluff see below, But we recommend reading the summaries of all the brushes or at least the ones you are interested in to see if they would be the best miniature brushes for you. Popularity Whilst not the most popular, these are the often amongst the most critically acclaimed brushes in the list. Almost every commenter talking about these had tried and compared them to the normal Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes and said that these were hands down the better quality of the two brands. After the Successful Campaign and release of Series S – Artis Opus followed up with the Series M (like the Winsor and Newton Miniature brushes above) made for fine detail work and more delicate/deliberate painters. Then the Series D – which are the absolute Best Drybrushes you can get ( see our Series D review here). Finally, if you are buying Games Workshop or Army painter brushes, you are getting brushes which are worth the price you pay. Neither will make you the best painter you can be, but equally, neither are restrictive in getting you to that “excellent” quality level.

Popular

And finally 2 series D brushes. The XL for basecoats and vehicles. and the Medium for shading and edge-highlighting infantry models. With all my new brushes, I will always wash the brush thoroughly first to get rid of the coating that gels the brush hair together. For those of you who just want the TLDR: the most “popular” choice of miniatures paint brushes, (by a very ‘clear’ margin) is the Winsor & Newton – Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Brush set. Not to be easily confused with the Winsor & Newton – Series 7 Kolinsky Sable ‘Miniature’ Painting Brush set – more on this later). When I leave the brush to dry, it dried with the hair all spread out, just like how it looked in water. To prevent that, you have to coat the hair with soap to shape it so that it dries to a point. Conclusion When I put the call out asking what the best brushes for painting miniatures were, I had 32 significantly different options (and some daft yet creative suggestions, like the scalps of fallen enemies). The list below makes up the bottom 5% in popularity of all the options mentioned. This does not mean they aren’t worth looking at. Instead, it goes to show that best brushes you can get are really just the best brushes that work for you.