Today has been rather annoying. Instead of getting out of the house and actually playing games, I have been working on Eiryss 3. The flip side of this is that I’ve finally got around to breaking out my new Series 7 paint brushes.
This is not going to be an in depth review because other, far more qualified people have done reviews of Winsor and Newton Series 7 brushes. In particular, check out the write up from Meg Maples here. However after one session using one of the five brushes I have, I’m damn impressed.
My rather wonderful wife picked me up 0, 1, 2, and 3 size brushes at Christmas, to join the 000 I already had. The size 1 is approximately the same size as the Games Workshop standard brush (maybe slightly bigger). For this first trial, I tried the size 2, and started working on highlighting Eiryss’ cloak and skin. Although this paint brush is significantly larger than my normal detail brush, this was based on some recommendations.
Colour me impressed.
So did it actually make any difference? Well, yes it did. Colour me impressed.
Firstly, as a larger brush it held up paint without any paint getting down towards the ferrule. This is the bit that holds the bristles together, getting paint here is a bad idea. I have the standard rather than Miniature Series 7s and apparently they have a large belly. This should make it easier to work longer without having to go back to the palette all the time; and yes it is does.
Secondly, these sable bristles seem to bring up and lay down paint much more smoothly than their synthetic counterparts. It’s difficult to describe better than that, but the Series 7 seems to work really nicely moving paint around the model. For the record, I’ve tried it with Privateer Press P3, Citadel, and Vallejo Game Colour paints, and mixes of all of these.
And finally, the thing keeps it shape well and holds a fine point. So fine in fact, it was surprisingly easy to paint the eyes on Eiryss. That’s painting really small eyes, with a size 2 paint brush. That’s new, to me at least. As I normally struggle with this, because I’m old and my eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be, I have to say this is a bit of a revelation.
From my point of review, all of these things combine to make the whole painting experience just flow better. This great because it allows me to concentrate more on applying paint to the model and less on everything leading up to that. While I only paint models to tabletop standard, I still appreciate this.
Anyway, that’s my quick review. Even if these are a little pricey, I think they are a good investment if you are serious about painting.
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