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Terrible GW brush


dread05

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This is the medium base brush from GW. Ok, I know GW brushes are not top quality, but this is ridiculous. I've bought this brush a month ago, and used it to base coat 7 space marines. I used GW paints over GW undercoat, and only diluted the paint with water. I then cleared them thoroughly with warm water and liquid soad.

 

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Is there a way to fix this? Or prevent it? It really pisses me off.

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The last time GW actually made good general purpose brushes was back when they had red handles, many moons ago. It's a shame really, but it's one of those things that they should consider more than just the profit margins on. The quality of your brush really can make-or-break the painting experience, especially if you're just starting out. I'm not saying they should give them away, but they should supply an above average quality brush at a reasonable price point.

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I have that problem with GW  base brushes too. I think a lot of their brushes are okay, but I won't touch their medium base brushes anymore. The large ones keep their shape but that's probably because I use them so rarely. Those base brushes are okay for stippling with, but that's not exactly huge praise. I gravitate toward Windsor and Newton brushes myself. If you're that careful with your brushes you should get good mileage out of them.

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One thing I do that I've found very helpful, is to buy cheap brushes in bulk for things like undercoating, base coating, etc. A lot of craft shops sell mixed packages really cheap (I get mine from Michael's crafts, it's about $10 for a big bag of all sorts of brushes), and this way stuff I do that ends up being rough on brushes like drybrushing doesn't ruin anything high quality.
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Believe it or not I still have GW brushes from when they had red tipped handles, and some that are entirely blue handled. Those were decent brushes. I absolutely hate the new current line. What you have up there is the result of just really poor quality stuff. I hate to say it because people like ganking GW product but I find out of their entire line up, the brushes are nearly defenseless. The washes, paints, pigments, technicals, air line... it's all improved a ton over the years, but the brushes are far too expensive and very, very entry level in my experience. 

 

I'd tell you what I'd do with that brush. Take an exacto, cut off the super frayed sides, turn into a dry brush and move on to a different brand. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Medium base brushes do the exact same thing to me. I got 3 of them a while back and they all went like that within a week or so of use. There definitely seems to be a quality issue with the M base brushes over their other ones. Their stuff isn't amazing, but it's not *this* bad.

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One thing I do that I've found very helpful, is to buy cheap brushes in bulk for things like undercoating, base coating, etc. A lot of craft shops sell mixed packages really cheap (I get mine from Michael's crafts, it's about $10 for a big bag of all sorts of brushes), and this way stuff I do that ends up being rough on brushes like drybrushing doesn't ruin anything high quality.

 

Unfortunately, you get what you pay for in that case.  I tried this for priming and other things I wouldn't use Kolinsky brushes on - but the bristles would often fall off into the coat of paint.  I do use inexpensive synthetics (actually, that's exactly when I use GW brushes) for priming, metallics, washes and varnish, but craft brushes have proven to yield awful results for me.

 

As for GW brushes, they're what ultimately drove me to invest in Winsor & Newton, and Raphael brushes.  I had such a bad experience I wrote a blog article about it.  The phrase "terrible GW brush" seems kind of redundant to me.

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One thing I do that I've found very helpful, is to buy cheap brushes in bulk for things like undercoating, base coating, etc. A lot of craft shops sell mixed packages really cheap (I get mine from Michael's crafts, it's about $10 for a big bag of all sorts of brushes), and this way stuff I do that ends up being rough on brushes like drybrushing doesn't ruin anything high quality.

 

 

Unfortunately, you get what you pay for in that case.  I tried this for priming and other things I wouldn't use Kolinsky brushes on - but the bristles would often fall off into the coat of paint.  I do use inexpensive synthetics (actually, that's exactly when I use GW brushes) for priming, metallics, washes and varnish, but craft brushes have proven to yield awful results for me.

 

As for GW brushes, they're what ultimately drove me to invest in Winsor & Newton, and Raphael brushes.  I had such a bad experience I wrote a blog article about it.  The phrase "terrible GW brush" seems kind of redundant to me.

I've actually had quite good results with it. Maybe I'm just completely lucky and found a cheap brand that holds up and doesn't fall apart, or maybe it's learning to paint well over 20 years with them as a handicap and I've just been doing it on hard mode. In any case, I'd still recommend a well made cheap synthetic over whatever GW is pushing any day.

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True enough - but whatever budget brand I got for grunt work wasn't worth the low price I paid.  They're not even very good as stir sticks.

But yes, for what you pay for GW brushes, you can find better alternatives.

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Sad to say but yes, i went and bought some GW brushes recently too and had very poor results from them,my medium brush did the exact same thing as the original posters did and the dry brush i got started seriously losing bristles after the 3rd model (this was very light dry brushing i'll add) the price would need to be at least half of what it is now for me to even think about them again...i'd rather get Vallejo or a medium priced brand over GW any day.

their paints and washes are great guns so it's disappointing to see the tool that's most important is poorly made ...and over priced 

W&N series 7 - Rolls Royce of brushes for sure... if your doing all the techniques you say you are in the first post then these will last you a long time. 

 

Mithril 

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My choice in brushes is W&N S7, Raphael 8404 and Broken Toad, there are others of course and I do own a few GW brushes but other than the wash brushes I don't use them much. I still have a full set of the 'Eavy Metal limited edition brushes from a few years back going strong but they were just W&N S7 anyway, one set was a longer bristle type, rigger I believe and when talking to one of the EM painters he said GW had ordered the wrong version but I like those for the extra spring they have.

 

Raphael are just as good as W&N if not better but are cheaper, Broken Toad are good, maybe a touch under a W&N but close enough the only thing with those are the have increased in price now and it makes it tough to pick them over Raphael but I have picked up a set recently as they do last really well.

 

The GW artificers are W&N S7 but the GW ones are more expensive than W&N ones now I believe?

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Correct on all counts - they can charge more for the same reason that people will buy $12 tweezers of a $23 hobby saw.  Most people in the GW hobby don;t even realize that there are better and less expensive alternatives.

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In part, it's the customer being unaware of alternatives, but it also stems from the concept of 'convenience store pricing' which has become less relevant in general with online shopping gaining such popularity, but still remains significant for our category of products which are tied to a social activity that can many times be located in a bricks-and-mortar shop. Yes, you pay more for it at the shop but it's all under one roof and you don't need to travel/search around for everything you need. That said, GW takes it to another level with some of their pricing decisions because the profit margins on some things can be astounding. Pushing the add-on sales at the register was always a must when I worked for them many moons ago.

 

But back to the primary subject, I can second that Rosemary & Co. and the W&N Cotman series of brushes are very good for their price point. A W&N Series 7 brush (or equivalent) will still perform better (the difference is subtle, but it is there) and last longer, but for many people the difference isn't significant enough to really matter to them.

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