Weathering Brushes

These are a few of the types of brushes I use for weathering my models. They're types that will be very familiar to picture painters, but they may not be quite as well known to modellers.

From left to right:

1. First is just a #5 round synthetic that I have used for general-purpose dry brushing for well over a decade, maybe two. As you can see, it's had a very hard life. Nothing very special here; everybody has a brush like this hanging around.
2. Next is a brush style called a dagger. It is flat, with a curved, pointed edge. This is an excellent style of brush for very controlled dry-brushing, as it can be oriented to apply the paint in a broad or narrow strip, with a relatively hard edge, or by leaning the brush right over so the point isn't in full contact, with a very soft edge. It's a good shape for getting right up against or under a ledge without contaminating the other surface. For wet-painting, a dagger can achieve a very fluid, calligraphic line.
3. Third is a filbert. Again, it's a flat brush but with a rounded edge; this allows you to blend in dry-brushed strokes with each other a bit better than with a regular chisel-edged brush, but it's still broad enough to cover a wide area. Or, by turning the brush 90°, you can dry-brush in a relatively narrow band. It makes it a very flexible brush for this sort of thing.
4. Last is a fan. These come in both soft and stiff types; this one is quite a coarse hog-bristle fan. I use it for creating a generalised streaking effect.

Apart from the last brush (the fan), these are all synthetics. Although they've improved immeasurably over the last couple of decades, synthetic brushes still aren't generally as good as natural hairs such as sable when it comes to detail painting. However, I prefer synthetics for weathering, as the bristles tend to be fine and springy, and the fact that they don't hold paint as well is less important. Also, and this is a factor not to be taken lightly, they are cheap. Weathering brushes take a real hammering, and using a fifty dollar brush for it is the sort of thing you'd only do if you had all the money in the world, and no conscience.