Cleaning your miniature paint brushes

CLEANING YOUR MINIATURE PAINT BRUSHES

rgg redgrassgames brush cleaning tips rinsing your brush with water regularly

Cleaning your miniature paint brushes is very important. With care, your Redgrassgames brushes can last you months or even years of use. And this is important as between our size 2 and size 00 brushes, you will be using them for everything! Our brushes are designed to be resistant and require little care. But you can greatly extend the life of any brush by cleaning it regularly. The advice we offer below will be useful for any miniature painting brushes, but most especially premium kolinsky brushes. When a hobbyist or pro-painter invests in quality brushes, it helps to care for them!

Table of Contents

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR BRUSHES

rgg redgrassgames brush cleaning tips brush soap

Cleaning couldn’t be simpler. Using warm – but not hot- water, rinse your brush so that the brush head is moist. This will help reactivate any hidden acrylic paint. With soft, even strokes, run your brush through your brush soap. If you don’t have any that is ok! You can also use ordinary household handsoap or shampoo just as effectively. Work the soap through the bristles, and then rinse clean with warm water to remove any residual soap or paint. That’s it! For stubborn paint you may need to repeat these steps a couple of times, but it will work.

STORING YOUR BRUSHES

Redgrassgames brushes size 2 and 00 how to store

Keep your brushes dry! Between rinsing and applying new paint, or after a cleaning session like the one mentioned above, dry your brush. Wiping excess moisture off with a paper towel will suffice. The metal part of your brush- the ferrule- is rust resistant, but prolonged moisture can still damage your brush. Never leave your brush standing in water, or tip down. This will bend the bristles and reform them undesirably. Whilst painting you can put your unused brushes on your wavy accessory, which is designed to act as a brush rest, too! Between painting sessions we advise storing your brushes on a rack, or ‘tip up’ in a pot. Redgrassgames brushes come shipped in a clear plastic guard- it is a good idea to keep these and use them to protect your brush!

GENERAL TIPS

Acrylic paints can cure inside the body of your brush. This means they set hard like plastic. Over time this will damage your brush and even trying to remove the residue will lead to splayed bristles and hairs dropping out. So the best advice we can give is to not let that happen in the first place! Prevention is better than cure, as the saying goes! Never load your brush more than halfway up the bristle pack, and rinse regularly with water even as your paint. Not just at the end! Whilst the acrylic paint is fresh, it is very easy to clean with just water. Every minute or so (less in hot weather) make sure to rinse your brush and then reapply fresh paint to the tip.

kolinsky brushes damage
No! Never do this with your brush! Apply paint to the lower half of the bristles only.
why acrylic paint damage your brushes
Cured acrylic paint, polymerised into plastic. Imagine how this building up in your brush can damage it!

FINAL ADVICE

sketching with thinned paints stage freehand space marine guide salamander primaris warhammer 40k games workshop redgrassgames sketching stage close up example brush on model

With care, your premium kolinsky brushes from Redgrassgames will last you a very long time over many paintjobs. Just remember to keep rinsing your brush in water regularly as you use it. Even if you are batch painting with the same color. Rinse, dry, reapply (paint), repeat. You can also help keep the 'spring' and pointiness of your brush tip by regularly reforming it. After drying off your paintbrush but before applying paint to it, spiral the tip between your thumb and finger. You can also do this on a clean part of your wet palette surface or paper towel. Watch our video below to see the technique!

CLEANING YOUR MINIATURE PAINT BRUSHES: VIDEO TUTORIAL

Redgrassgames Brush Collection
  • redgrassgames-brossage-sec-figurine-site

    RGG Dry brush

    6.50CHF
    Add to cart
  • v

    Brush: Size 2

    15.50CHF
    Add to cart
  • RGG-brush-2/0-00-miniature-painting-kolinsky

    Brush: Size 2/0

    14.50CHF
    Add to cart

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