Paintbrushes
They say that it's a poor workman who blames his tools, but if your tools aren't very good, it can be very hard to achieve anything successful.

If you don't have a good paintbrush, you will often find that it's hard to control exactly where the paint goes, even with very, very small brushes. The tip will hook or curve or splay out, spreading the paint around. Alternately, stray bristles will put paint on the area _next_ to where you are trying to paint.

That said, how do you determine what a good brush is, exactly, and aren't they awfully expensive for something that will just wear out in 6 months? Well, let's see if we can answer those questions, then I'll cover how to take care of them and what to do if they start going bad.

One Brush to Rule them All
The most important part of the brush is the business end. Assuming that the barrel (the handle) is a decent fit for your hand, you don't really need much else from it. The bristles need plenty of attention, though. First off, make sure they are sable. While I don't really know the nuances of the various materials, all the major miniature painters agree on it, so it must important. (I believe it has to do with the flexibility of the hairs and the flow of the paint.) Next up, the shape and size.

There are a huge variety of bristle shapes available, so which ones do we need? While there are some uses for the odd shapes, what we mostly want is to put paint in very small areas. For that, we need a good point. Next up, we need to figure out a good size. Again, there are a lot of sizes to choose from, but mostly what we need is something around a size zero. Bigger brushes can be handy for getting a lot of paint on a model fast (hence "tank brushes") however, I spend most of my time on smaller models. While you can get smaller brushes than a zero, the point that the bristles form on a good brush won't really be any smaller. Okay, so how do we find a good brush?

Frankly, like many things in life, you get what you pay for. Stick to brushes that cost more than $5 (and fill the other requirements.) The gods of the miniature painting world seem to agree on the Winsor and Newton Series 7. These list for around $40, but you can get them significantly cheaper, often in the $7-$9 range. Now, if you go through a brush every few months, that starts to add up, so you need to take care of your brushes.

Taking Care of Brushness
When it comes to taking care of brushes, there are really only two major things you need to do. The first is to keep it clean. If paint dries on the bristles, it can stiffen the individual hairs and make them not respond correctly. If that paint gets into the ferrule (the metal collar that keeps the bristles together) it will force the bristles to spread out and mess up the tip. Clean the brush regularly. If you rinse out the brush once every 5 or 6 trips to the paint pot, you should be pretty well covered. If paint gets into the ferrule, don't let it dry, rinse it immediately. You may even need to splay the brush against the bottom of your rinse cup and rotate it around to get it all out. Only do this if you are sure that simple rinsing didn't get the paint out of the ferrule, since this violates the next cardinal rule of taking care of your brushes. If you are forced to do this, immediately apply the steps listed in the rehab section.

Don't let the tip splay out. This often happens when the paint is getting dry or when you are putting too much pressure on the tip of the brush. This will ruin the point of your brush very quickly. (This is why painters generally recommend you use a cheap or old brush to do your drybrushing.) A splayed tip may not reform correctly, which will screw up your painting in short order. While it is better to avoid this whenever possible, if this has happened, all is not lost.

Old Brushes go to Rehab
It is possible to rehabilitate brushes that haven't been as well taken care of. First, make sure that they are now as clean as possible. If they haven't been cleaned very well before, you may need to wet the brush and actually use your fingernail to scrape off some of the old paint. Always make sure it is wet, and frequently rinse it when doing this. If you don't get it wet, the bristles are likely to break off.

The second part of rehabilitation is tip therapy. You want to get the tip back in shape and there are two ways to do it that work well in combination. After rinsing the brush, lay the bristles sideways against a paper towel and roll the brush in your fingers, making the bristles twirl against the towel, forming something of a point. After doing this, put the tip of the brush in your mouth and use your lips and tongue to re-form the point. (Important that you've cleaned the brush first, otherwise you get to taste-test the paint. Tin Bitz is actually kind of sweet, Snot Green isn't.) Depending on how badly worn your old brush is, you may need to repeat this process several times. I know a guy (Hi Lee!) that had a set of GW brushes for more than 5 years because he took such good care of them. I've had my current brush (the coveted Winsor and Newton Series 7, thank you very much) for about 3 years or so and it looks as good as the day I got it.

Tip therapy is something that you can do 3 or so times, then put the brush aside for later. If you eventually decide that the brush is too far gone after all, you can always use it as a drybrush and go get a new one.

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