An overhead flat-lay of an miniature painter's paint setup on a wooden table, featuring multiple paintbrushes, a dry brush board and bottles of acrylic paint.

Brush Sizes Explained: Wargaming Miniatures and Model Making

There are so many paintbrush sizes for you to choose from when wargaming or scale model painting, so how do you even begin to know where to start? The answer is, of course, dependent on what you are trying to paint and what techniques you are using. Are you trying to paint tiny details within a wargaming model, maybe details on eyes or patterns within clothing or armour, or are you painting the sides of larger-scale model vehicles,

or are you adding dry brush detailing onto terrain? 

Each task requires a brush size best suited to what you are painting, and this guide will help you to decide on which brushes you should be using for almost

every aspect of miniature painting.

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What Do Brush Sizes Actually Mean?

The size of the miniature paintbrush you are using will always appear on the handle of the brush. Unfortunately, the sizing between manufacturers often differs, making it quite difficult to understand what size is which and what brush you need to use. It also makes comparing brushes from different brands more difficult, but we can discuss the general rules to help you make your decision easier to make. 

While the number on the handle of the brush is what is used to indicate size, there is no set standard for their size, so a size 2 from one brushmaker can look very different to a 2 from another. The number refers to the thickness, length or width of the brush hairs, meant to order the sizes of the brushes within a range, rather than actually accurately represent a measurement. Handles and the size of the ferrule can also differ in size and affect the number order, which means that sometimes even the sizes within the same manufacturer can look very different between ranges. It is very important not to purchase a brush solely based on the size number. 

Always check the listed dimensions of the brush to ensure you have an accurate estimate of what the size of your brush is going to be. This will instead help you to find out what their working area is, a much more useful piece of information. If you favour a particular brand of brush, you will also become more familiar with how they order and size their brushes, with time, giving you a better estimate of what you need to paint with.

Painting a basecoat onto a mini in red paint, with a ABC Round Brush.

Brush Sizes to Use for Common Miniature Painting Tasks

  • Basecoating - Basecoating is the first layer of colour that gets applied to a miniature, forming the foundations for any subsequent colour schemes and techniques, setting the entire tone of your characters. This is one of the most important steps of painting, and ensuring you have a brush that creates a smooth base coat means that weathering techniques and detailing, such as dry brushing and highlighting, can work to their full potential. 

    The best base coating brush would be a larger sable or synthetic round or pointed round brush, usually in a size 2, but you can size up for any models that require you to cover larger surfaces. A large brush will help you to apply a base coat smoothly and quickly, storing more paint in its belly and therefore being able to release more paint over larger surfaces. Anything smaller than this could mean that you will be sitting at your desk, base coating for hours, or even worse, create an uneven, streaky coat of paint that will ruin the appearance of your weathering or detailing. 

  • Layering - One of the most common techniques you will encounter when wargaming or scale model painting will be layering. Layering involves building up several layers of translucent paint, showing a transition of colour that usually depicts shadows, highlights or more special effects, like objects glowing. Mid-size brushes, ideally a size 1 or 0, work the best, allowing you to apply layering in a way that balances both coverage and control.

Painting detailing onto a Zelda miniature with an ABC Round brush.
  • Detail painting and highlights - Detail painting and highlights will be the final and smallest aspects that you will apply to your model, often involving patterns on armour, highlights on eyes or detailing on clothing, such as buttons. Many painters may want to immediately reach for the smallest micro detailing brushes that are available, while small or micro detail brushes are perfect for these techniques, they are not always the best choice. A size 10/0 will be your go-to for creating the tiniest of details in eyes, but if you choose to use these as an all-arounder detailing brush, you will wear down the sharp point and make it redundant for any real micro-detailing. Instead, size up to brushes like a 3/0 or 2/0; they can maintain a perfect point, but also have a larger belly and are flexible enough to switch between levels of more general detailing. 

  • Washes - Applying washes can save you lots of time when you are applying tonal values to your miniatures, allowing you to emphasise depth easily and quickly. The technique involves applying thin, watery paint to the model, allowing it to pool in recesses, edges and textured areas, darkening naturally occurring shadows. The technique does not require you to be too accurate with your paint application, instead allowing you to use the existing shapes and texture of the character to direct the paint flow. This means that you should use a larger flat brush with a good paint capacity, allowing you to hold and apply large amounts of paint quickly. 
Set of Pro Miniature painting brushes against a wooden background, with a range of different minis next to them.

Brush Sizes for Wargaming Miniatures

Brush sizes for wargaming miniatures rarely exceed a size 2, as the characters tend not to be that large, and you will always have to be mindful of obscuring any detail-based sculpting on characters. However, always be aware of what scales you are painting, as this will affect the range of brushes you choose to paint with. Painting infantry will always require a smaller range of brushes, due to the lower level of detail, sizes 1 and 2 will usually suit this painting job perfectly. Character models will usually be much more detailed than infantry, so you will have to use a greater range of brush sizes to make sure that ultra-tiny details, like teeth, can be captured.

Heroic scales in wargaming feature a sculpting style that likes to exaggerate proportions and have more stylised features within their characters, as opposed to more realistic styles, which are, as the name suggests, more realistic in their sculpting and have a higher anatomical accuracy. This means that heroic characters often have various enlarged aspects, including heads, hands or weapons, meaning that you will have to use bigger brushes than when you are painting more realistic models.

Set of Pro Arte Prolon Miniature paintbrushes against a wooden background, with a range of minis and a used dry brush board next to them.

Brush Sizes for Scale Model Making

When you are painting scale models, you will find yourself using larger brush sizes, especially when you are painting models like aircraft or larger vehicles. Scale modelling tends to have more large surfaces and flatter panels for you to cover, so you will be more likely to exceed a size 2 brush. Figures within scale modelling can also go into as much detail as featuring writing and patterns on medals, so smaller brushes are still very much in need. In this case, precision will matter much more than speed, so using brushes, like a size 3/0 or 5/0, will be more common. The bigger range in scales and sizes within this aspect of the hobby will always mean that there will be a bigger range in the brush sizes that you use.

Picking up yellow paint with a round paintbrush, from an abc paint palette. There are minis next to it.

Common Brush Size Mistakes to Avoid

  • Jumping straight to a size 10/0 -  As much as you would like to jump straight to the smallest brush size you can, sometimes using a larger brush size can allow you to paint with more flexibility. Micro detail brushes, like a 10/0, don’t possess a large belly like larger size brushes do, they don’t retain paint, and you won’t be able to apply multiple or large strokes of paint without returning to your palette frequently. A larger belly also means that you can store paint without it drying quickly. You will also notice that paint will dry onto the brush's bristles much faster. Therefore, micro detailing brushes are better suited to applying small areas of paint with precision. 

  • Trying to use one brush size for everything - Some sizes of brush types are very flexible and can be frequently used for a wide variety of techniques. But there will always be instances where you will have to be more precise with the size of the brush you use to maximise the accuracy of your painting. Many more experienced painters will lean towards using larger brush sizes, rarely dipping below a size 0, since they tend to have much better brush control, unless you are painting objects like eyes or teeth. They will still switch between brush sizes depending on the detail level or surface area; beginners are always recommended to size down more than more experienced wargaming painters, so that they can learn to build up their brush control more gradually, rather than sacrificing detail level on their models and destroying the sharp tips of any bigger brushes.

  • Matching brush size to detail instead of surface area - Always match the brush to the surface area you will be painting, rather than the level of detail. They should match the largest area you will be painting in that instance, you can then correctly match the paint retention of the brush to the painting area. Otherwise, you can risk using brushes that are too small and that don’t have a very large belly, potentially damaging their tips or the entire brush.
Set of ABC micro detail brushes on a ABC dry brush board.

How Many Brush Sizes Do You Need?

The most common brush shape you will be using when wargaming or scale model painting will be either a round or a pointed round. You should always be combining them with multiple other types of brushes, like dry brushes or flats, but this is the type of brush you will have the most variety of brush sizes in. Remember to keep your options minimal when creating a starter setup, as it will stop you from becoming overwhelmed with choice. As you begin to learn painting, you can always add to your brush options as you progress and your skills improve.

Would you like to explore how different brush types can help you with different aspects of your miniature painting? Check out our blog about brush shapes: Miniature Painting Brush Shapes Explained.

Always let the task you are doing choose the brush size you are going to paint your mini with. It is about surface area rather than detail when picking a brush, and sometimes bigger brushes will give you better results than any tiny detail brushes. Experiment with the brush size options that are available, whether that be within sets from the ABC range, different brush shape types or hair types. There are so many to choose from, and you will only be able to develop a setup specific to you and your practice if you explore and test as many as you can. 

From a size 10/0 up to a size 12, ABC has a wide variety of brush sizes available that you can use to achieve the best quality painting for your miniature painting practice.

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