How many of you still use Paint Brushes?

Funny;

 I wasn't really sure my little Blackflies would work. Gees, I went and made two more since I posted last. Now, The Lake. The Big Lakes. Sam Rayburn and LadyBird Beware! Doc's gotchya in his sights!

These days, about the only time I use a paintbrush is for either painting knobs and switches in a cockpit, or for doing a pin wash.  I just like the thin, smooth finish with crisp edges that a combo of airbrush and liquid masking fluid gives me.  I've even gotten to the point where I'm masking and airbrushing instrument panels and all I can say is that I wish I had tried that years ago.  

Tanker-Builder

Goldhammer;

     Talking about Bamboo rods made me go in the garage and dig through for stuff. Found my fly tyng vise and the tool kit.YAY. Still have a handful of Blackflies left. Went to the park and tested the old stuff out. Not a keeper, But I did Catch a SmallMouth Bass. Little guy, I definitely let him go.

      I wound up staying till the sun disappeared from view and that funny dim big light in the sky showed up. Caught another one, oops! He was a keeper and delicious!

    This has showed me one thing. Old good gear doesn't need replacing, it just needs using! This includes the wielder of the equipment! I felt so good and checked. I needed to re-new my Fishing License anyway. So I did!

 

Wow, I haven't kept up with this thread ! Good going TB !!

And GH, the Royal Coachman is one of my favorite flies to tie and fish, even more so the RW. They aren't so hot around home here but great on our trips to northern Maine.

Back on brushes. I find taklon to be a good compromise bristle material between different types of paint, seriously. And hey, anyone ever tie mayflies using artificial tailing material ? Try brush bristles. Again Seriously, especially for BWO ( Blue Wing Olives).

Goldhammer;

     Talking about Bamboo rods made me go in the garage and dig through for stuff. Found my fly tyng vise and the tool kit.YAY. Still have a handful of Blackflies left. Went to the park and tested the old stuff out. Not a keeper, But I did Catch a SmallMouth Bass. Little guy, I definitely let him go.

      I wound up staying till the sun disappeared from view and that funny dim big light in the sky showed up. Caught another one, oops! He was a keeper and delicious!

    This has showed me one thing. Old good gear doesn't need replacing, it just needs using! This includes the wielder of the equipment! I felt so good and checked. I needed to re-new my Fishing License anyway. So I did!

Speaking of paint brushes…

I have been using Artists Loft paint brushes; Artists Loft is a Michaels brand name. Two are wide ones with angled bristles, one is a medium sized one with a "filbert" oval tip, and one a medium-sized round one that comes to an amazingly "sharp" tip.

Based on comments in this thread about cross contamination of various paints, thinners, and cleaners, I decided last night that I needed to buy some more of the same brushes and dedicate each to a particular type of paint — acrylics, enamels, and decanted Tamiya spray paints. So I went to the internet to see if my local Michaels store had the brushes in stock. Nope. Not a one. Nor do any of the other three other Michaels stores in Vancouver.

I wasn't surprised — when I was at Michaels last week I couldn't help but notice that their scale-modelling shelves were virtually empy. That's not surprising. On the same trip, I also noticed that there were hardly any paint brushes in the art supplies section of the store. Clearly, the novel coronavirus pandemic has seriously damaged the supply lines that we have come to depend on, and not just for paint brushes. Several times recently, I have tried and failed to find other modelling supplies on line.

Bob

I have a Iwata Eclipse air brush, I have found that I only use it to paint large areas, such as the hull, etc. The reason being is that to paint with the air brush is a big production, not having a paint booth, I have to set up in the garage, start the air compressor, properly mix the paint with thinner and other colors if needed ( and usually I do not properly calculated the amount I need, so I always wind up short ), then clean the whole mess after I am done, including expending a good 1/2 hour just cleaning the air brush itself. I like the finish provided with the air brush, and, once started, painting the items only takes seconds.

When I open a kit, then finding several trees full of parts, and with no idea as to what color goes were, some are large pieces that share the same color, I try to paint those with the air brush, but, there is always a piece that needed to be paint that I miss. Then there is the situation were one tree of parts may have parts that require different colors, so, time has to be expended masking up.

So, at the end I find myself painting with a regular brush, those parts that were too small, I missed the first time, or simply did them with the wrong color.

I you guys have some tips as to how to use the air brush more efficiently, I would like to hear them.

Thanks

Joe

TB-  My Mom had one of her Postmaster friends who built bamboo rods make one for my birthday...I think I was 12.  9 foot, 4 piece, with a "new fangled" automatic reel. That would have been around '65.  Still have it, but haven't dug it out of the cloth bag and hard case in years...and 67 now.

That thing was deadly on rainbows and browns with Royal Coachman, mosquitoes, and black ant flys.

Hey, Oldermodelguy;

      Nuthin ta ba sorry about. I just threw that in because I had a guy that Fly Fished show me how to make a Bamboo Fly rod. I have NEVER used it as a flyrod though. Geez, that thing is so sensitive the Bluegill and Crappie don't stand a chance, that is, when they are biting !

Thanks for the suggestions.

Pat

PFJN

Hi,

Right now I mostly only use a paint brush, or a sponge tip for some special items.  I recently tried spray painting a build with ome canned spray paint but kind of messed it up a bit.  

When I was much younger I did try out a simplae airbrush (run off a can of compresed gas) but was never able to get the hang of it.  And it seemed like a lot of prep and clean up if you were only painting a small item/kit.

Now that I am older though I have been giving some thought to trying out an airbrush again.  Hopefully now that I am older, maybe I won't be so impatient 

 

 

I have a few friends who only brush paint, but it takes a lot of skill and practice.  I have other friends who use only rattle cans, and that takes practice too.  You cannot learn new skills instantly.  Do not try to eliminate practice.  A good source of practice material is a box of plastic spoons.  Modelers in this area use them for practice when trying a new paint, or a new painting technique.

I do use an Iwata Eclipsi for major airbrushing with a compressor.  I've have used a Paasahe and a Badger 150 and an Aztec. I still use  batch of various size brushes for other jobs.  They are all part of the Hobby.  Enamel or Acrilic, it don't matter to me.  I'm not like the first poster of his is about keeping his brushes clean.  Of course, that's his career.   I do keep everything clean.  As I've gotten older and my eyes and hands go, my hands don't work as well, so figure painting has gone to heck.

Hi,

Right now I mostly only use a paint brush, or a sponge tip for some special items.  I recently tried spray painting a build with ome canned spray paint but kind of messed it up a bit.  

When I was much younger I did try out a simplae airbrush (run off a can of compresed gas) but was never able to get the hang of it.  And it seemed like a lot of prep and clean up if you were only painting a small item/kit.

Now that I am older though I have been giving some thought to trying out an airbrush again.  Hopefully now that I am older, maybe I won't be so impatient 

My daughter and her husband do fily fishing in the mountains a 1/2 hour away from us.  They are going for trout.  They having lots of fun.  I have not drowned worms in decades.  Never liked it.  I like sitting by a river, but without a pole and watching.

Hi JohnnyK;

     Geez ,youse guys is a sorry Bunch, ya know. Are you trying ta tell me youses ain't got those neat bamboo poles anymore? Buck up and git one. Make the time and go catch a fish the old way. It will refresh your life, believe me.

     After my cardiac surgery and folks would let me go places on my own I went to ***'s Sporting Goods and bought a twelve foot bamboo pole. A package of bobbers and split shot sinkers. A reel of good line and a bucket of worms. I went into the woods near the Comal river with my old person Fishing license pinned to me hat.

 Caught four nice sized Bluegill and had fish for dinner. Best day of recovery from the " Rush" life I ever had. Now I try to do it at least once a month!. I don't take anything stronger than two bottles of water and two small "Root Beers" I like DAD'S best. A nice shady spot and geez life is great !

JohnnyK

I remember fishing with a bamboo pole at Fox Lake, Illinois, 60 years ago. There was no reel, just a line attached to the end of the long pole. There was a hook with a worm and  a lead sinker at the end of the line. A red and white plastic bobber was used to adjust the depth of the hook. We used to sit at the waters edge and watch the bobber for hours. You know if you caught a fish when the bobber went under the water. Yikes, those were simple times.

 

I remember my first outing fishing around easter or so maybe 1956 or 57, I would have been 6 or 7. It was Sunday and it was my mom who suggested they take me fishing. My grandmother lived with us. Being Sunday nothing was open back then but maybe an ice cream stand lol. So, granny and I dug some worms from the garden, mom bent a hook from a safety pin. Dad cut a sapling stick and tied some gardening twine to it. And off we went, everyone piled into the Nash and we went down to the second pond in a chain of ponds connected by a stream. The one actual piece of official fishing equipment we had was that red and white bobber you mentioned. The safety pin I guess was enough to take the worm down. To this day I remember that shocking feeling of the first ever fish biting the line and not only was the fish hooked but so was I to a lifetime of fishing. As you say no reel, I caught two or three bluegill that Sunday afternoon. All dad had to teach me really was to set the hook, I got the line out ok after the first few tries with his help., Course it was all of 6-7 ft off shore lol. But ya know, families did things together back then, not so much I my me in society, though plenty of that was soon to follow.

The Nash was maybe a 54, black with a red top, a hard top, no post between front and rear side windows,, continental wheel on the back. I remember the shifter on the column and green dash lights that looked cool at night. Rode like your sofa on wheels made from clouds, probably handled about as good on those bias ply tires. We lived in inland Ma. We took that thing to Cape Cod ( where I live now), the big highways were under construction then so not passable, it was a 5-1/2 hour trip to the Cape from where we lived and that to me seemed like going to a foreign country.. Today that same trip is about 90 minutes, 2 hours on a bad day.. First encounter with fog off the bay was on that trip, fog and dew settled in on the Nash, it wouldn't start. My dad was all ticked off because it had a tune up before we left and the fog horns of the ships out in the bay that he loved now seemed to be mocking him. But the engine was soaked from condensation we didn't really get inland or not so often or thick. I know that now having been shop foreman for years to a fleet on the Cape. Great trip otherwise, first time in freezing cold salt bay water. Crystal clear, still is today. People talk about the gloom and doom, I took a picture of my mom and dad on the beach down here in front of a dune on that trip in 1957 with his Brownie camera. I can go to that same dune today, same rocks lining the canal that exits there etc. So everything about planet earth hasn't changed. What does change is the beach, we get winter storms that sucks the sand out and drops rocks. Two years later it's liable to do the opposite. Crazy, NE winter storms are very powerful here, sometimes hurricane strength, we just don't advertise it.. Enough rambling.

I remember in Michigan when margarine was white in the package.  Also in the package was an envelope of pigment which you mixed into the margarine to make it yellow.

This was in Detroit- my grandma had an icebox, not a refrigerator and the iceman left a block of ice every other day.

I remember fishing with a bamboo pole at Fox Lake, Illinois, 60 years ago. There was no reel, just a line attached to the end of the long pole. There was a hook with a worm and  a lead sinker at the end of the line. A red and white plastic bobber was used to adjust the depth of the hook. We used to sit at the waters edge and watch the bobber for hours. You know if you caught a fish when the bobber went under the water. Yikes, those were simple times.

Tanker-Builder

Oh My;

 When's the last time you created a new rod from Bamboo? Mine is about sixty five years old now, and is still lively!

 

I'm not new to fly fishing but rod building has been maybe 25 years or so on again off again. I've just gone through about a five year flurry of it and started turning my own cork grips to the feel I like and some other family likes. No bamboo here TB.  Actually bamboo has had a resurge over the last couple of years or so but I've never built one. I've built glass rods though. Most have been graphite, sorry !

Oh My;

 When's the last time you created a new rod from Bamboo? Mine is about sixty five years old now, and is still lively!

I use them on models to some extent and in fly rod building. No magic stories, they're a tool, a means to an end... .

Hi Knox;

   That looks like the shelf next to my bench almost. I have seven bottles( Empty Turtle food Bottles) ( I have a RED EARED Slider critter.) and they are there with their tops cut off and full of different brushes. I use a lot of Make-Up brushes on figures so a shorter bottle there.

    Each one is labeled with the type of paint they are used in. That way I don't even microscopically Cross-Contimanate them.

me too . 

A lot.

knox

I paint miniatures for gaming and fun, so I have a few brushes on hand.

Same here.  I have a lot of brushes but that's for when one starts to bend too much or spread out.  I take better care of them now but I still have backups.  Most of my brushes are the cheaper sables or synthetics and they hold  up well, they get a cleaning with Master's soap then a bit of hair conditioner worked in.  When I moved away from enamels for brush painting my brushes were able to last longer.

Oho! 

 Baron, Thank you sir! I had forgotten about the nasal oil method. I think I will go back to it. I only use oil based enamels anyway. I am getting into Acrylics slowly. If they don't brush well they get discarded.The brush cleaned and reset, and the Acrylics given to my landlady for her crafts!

I use paint brushes all the time.  I paint figures, but I use them on ordinance, airplanes, ships.  An airbrush can't paint the instruments on an instrument panel.

As far as caring for them goes, I would not use Dawn or any dishwashing liquid on my natural hair brushes, because dishwashing detergents all contain de-greasers.  You want to replace the natural oils on the hairs of the brush to help preserve them.  That's why there are soaps and preservatives sold to clean and preserve brushes, and help them last.

I know a French figure painter who uses olive oil to treat his brushes, after cleaning them.  I often use skin oil, by rubbing the sides of my nose with my fingertips, and then shaping the bristles back to a point.

I use Nr 1 and Nr 2 rounds made of Kolinski sable, for use with acrylics or oils on figures.  I've got a couple of Windsor & Newtons, and then some others by smaller or obscure makers.

I use other natural hair brushes-other sables, or fox hair, of various sizes, for general detail work.

Using an airbrush in my small apartment would be super inconvenient, so I have had to rely on rattle cans and paint.

I have a dozen or so brushes, but time and again I find myself using just five of them: a #4 Simply Simmons Round brush that comes to a fine point for detail work, and four Artist's Loft Angle Shader brushes, sized 3/4, 1/2, and 4, and another size-6 Filbert brush. I've purchased all of them at Michael's in Vancouver.

Bob 

I used to use brushes for all my model painting, until I acquired my first airbrush, Christmas before last.  I only use them now for detail work, weathering, and touch-ups - basically jobs that need precision, control, and/or minute amounts of paint.  I have some that I've had for so long I can't remember how many years, and look after them well.

  I paint miniatures for gaming and fun, so I have a few brushes on hand. I’m probably due to pick up a few more.