Sable vs Synthetic Brushes: Which Is Best for Miniature And Model Pain

Building the Perfect Miniature Painting Workspace Part 2

A well-equipped and organised miniature painting workspace will enable you to create efficiently and comfortably, while also giving you space to experiment and learn more about the hobby. Whether or not you have a dedicated studio space or paint from your kitchen table, there are a variety of model painting accessories and tools that will make your experience easier, faster and more enjoyable. You don’t have to buy every single miniature painting product recommended to you, but having a few quality, reliable tools will always make your painting experience that little bit easier.

This blog explores the second half of the tools that will maximise your painting experience, looking into how different model handling tools, prep tools, and storage systems can benefit your practice. There are so many options to choose from, but this guide will help to narrow down your choices by exploring the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of different tools within the scale model and wargaming painting world.

Sable or synthetic paint brushes? Which brush hair type should you be choosing to use when painting wargaming models? Hair types have a massive impact on the characteristics of your paint brushes. and there are advantages and disadvantages to every hair type. Different bristles can increase the durability of your brushes or the control you have over them as you paint, and they can all massively vary in price.

However, the most common bristle types you will be using when painting wargaming miniatures will be either synthetic or sable bristles. This blog will be comparing the two, helping you to decide on what are the best brushes for painting miniatures with, while also ensuring you can choose which brushes best suit your style of painting.

Model Handling Tools

Holding your miniatures directly as you are painting can cause you no end of problems, including smudging your paint, a lack of brush control and hand fatigue. It can become incredibly fiddly and can slow down your working time massively if you have to constantly be correcting the paint you have knocked with your fingertips. This is where tools like painting handles, hobby grips, cork holders or clamps can become useful to incorporate into your painting process.

Painting Handles - Painting handles feature a plastic handle with a base mount on top of it. Some use mounting putty or Blu-Tack to adhere your model to them, while others have built-in clasps to hold onto a variety of scale bases. Only really used with wargaming miniatures, painting handles give you an ergonomic grip to hold onto as you paint, stabilising a mini without having any areas of it covered by clamps or fingers. The Citadel Colour Painting Handle has a spring-loaded clasp that can expand to fit bases from 25mm up to 40mm, with a handle that can be held comfortably in your hand for long painting sessions or be free-standing.

Hobby Grips - Hobby grips are similar to painting handles but have a clamp at the top to hold onto a model or its base when you are painting. A hobby grip stabilises your mini and secures it well, allowing you excellent freedom of movement. However, this does mean that you might not be able to paint a model's base as freely as you would be able to with a painting handle.

Sculpting Corks - Cork holders are a cheaper alternative to a painting handle or hobby grip and are just a cylindrical piece of cork cut to various different diameters and lengths, allowing you to work with different wargaming scales very easily. You can then hold onto the cork comfortably and spin your model into whatever position you need. They are not as specifically designed as a painting handle or hobby grip, so the shape of the cork holder is not as ergonomic, but they offer a cheaper, more readily available alternative to both.

Clamps or Helping Hands - Helping hands are a series of crocodile clips on metal, adjustable arms that hold your model in place so you can paint specific details without worrying about any shakiness. Some also come with a magnifying glass that lets you paint precise areas more easily. However, the arms of the helping hands can get in the way of any dynamic brush strokes, especially when you are painting base coats or brush priming, so they are largely kept for detailing.

You can also purchase regular clamps in various sizes that securely hold onto any model you choose. Scale modellers often use larger clamps with big vehicle models so that they can concentrate on painting a side at a time. Although you can also buy small clamps or vices suitable for smaller wargaming or infantry models, which help you isolate heads and tiny equipment with ease.

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Hobby Tools For Prep Work

You will need to prep and build all of the components of your miniatures before you even begin to paint any part of your models. Both metal and plastic models will usually come disassembled in their boxes, and it will be your job to build them before you can start to paint and bring the character to life. Mould lines will have to be removed via sanding, and you will have to glue all of the different parts together using either super glue or plastic glue. There are some essential prep tools that will help to make your building experience quicker and ensure you have a clean and tidy model that can make your painting experience so much easier.

Hobby Knife - A hobby knife is a miniature painter's tool kit essential, and is always sold in all craft or fine art shops. They will help you to clean up mould lines before you start to prime any miniatures by trimming excess sprue parts, and can be useful whenever you need to cut up parts of models precisely for kitbashing. Many will come with replaceable blades that you can change whenever they start to become dull.

Sprue Cutters - Another miniature painters tool kit essential that will help you to remove all of your model parts from their sprues are sprue cutters or clippers. Instead of ripping each part out of the sprue and risking damaging them, cut them out with precision with some clippers, which you can then also use to clean up any excess plastic. You can buy miniature specific clippers from The Army Painter, or you can buy some small clippers from any hardware shop.

Sanding Sticks or Files - Sanding sticks or files are used to clean up and remove the mould lines of your models' different parts, creating a completely smooth surface that you can then paint on. Files will always be used with metal models, while sanding sticks can be used to sand down the edges on plastic models.
Plastic Glue or Super Glue - Once you have removed your pieces from the sprue and removed all of the mould lines, all miniature components will need to be glued together before you can begin to paint. When building plastic minis, plastic glue should be your go-to, it fuses two plastic parts by melting them together and forming an incredibly strong joint. It is only designed to work on plastic, so it will not adhere to your skin if you ever get it on your hands and will dry more slowly than super glue, allowing for more adjustments as you work. Superglue should be used with metal or resin models, alongside supports or pins on any larger limbs or wings. However, if you ever need to readjust or remove parts of plastic minis, you should use super glue as well, as this won’t damage the material between the joints as much.

Paint Organisation and Storage

Once you start to accumulate a large paint collection, you are going to want to start to organise and store them in a way that both prioritises ease of access and is space-efficient. A good paint storage system will ensure that you have clear visibility of all your paints, helping with a faster colour selection as you work by wasting less time on working your way through a massive mess of paint bottles to select the perfect colour palette. There are quite a few options, including paint racks, drawer systems and storage trays, all available in miniature painting specific shops and fine art or hardware shops.

Buying storage purely based on aesthetics will not help your miniature painting processes and might even hinder you. Remember to always choose a storage system based on how easy it makes your process, how well you can expand it and how much space it will take up on your desk or bench.

Vertical Paint Racks - Paint racks are a tiered storage system, often made from MDF and, therefore, are a cheaper option that also offers a clear solution to visibility. You can organise your entire collection however you would like; by colour, by brand or by type and then be able to select a colour at a glance, since their labels are visible when all the bottles are stacked together in their slots. A paint rack is also a vertical storage system, allowing for more space on your desk if you often find surface area in your setup to be tight.

The downsides of paint racks are that they are a static storage system, if you are ever travelling with your paints or need to clear them off your desk regularly, they won’t work for you. Paint racks can also vary a lot in paint bottle compatibility, so a paint rack that would fit an Army Painter bottle may not always work with a Vallejo bottle, which can lead to you purchasing multiple different racks that may not always expand well with each other.
Drawer Systems - If you prefer your desk to be clutter-free, drawers offer a storage solution that can hide away all of your supplies and tools. This can also mean that you are able to protect your paints from any dust or sun damage that can come with sitting on your desk for too long. You can also purchase dividers that help with the visibility and organisation of your drawers further, allowing you to sort them into colours and collections.

If you do not organise your drawers with a divider, you can end up creating a ‘drawer of doom’ full of loose paint bottles that will cause you more frustration. Having a large collection of paint rolling around in a drawer will only cause bottles to become buried or lost, decreasing your speed as you work.

Storage Trays and Caddies - A perfect option if you are regularly travelling around with your paints; going to conventions, painting with friends or regularly need to completely clear your desk of your supplies. Storage trays will help you to keep your tools and paints together in a space-efficient way that reduces your need for a larger working area, allowing you to stack trays and containers when you are not using them, while also allowing for ample opportunities to grow and add to your paint collection.

This does, however, reduce the visibility of your paints when you are working. Many travel-friendly organisers will pack away each bottle tightly so that you can’t see the labels or colours. This will also entail a pack-up and pack-down process that will take time from your wargaming or scale model painting.

Sable vs Synthetic Brushes: Which Is Best for Miniature And Model Painting?

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