You could paint an entire miniature with a single brush — there are no rules at the hobby desk. But picking the right brush for each job makes everything easier: base coats go down faster, details come out cleaner, and you spend less time fixing mistakes. Here’s a simple guide to choosing brushes, using our two ranges: the standard Hawk Kolinsky sable brushes and our walnut-handled Micro & Gaming brushes.
Three fundamentals to get you started
1. Go bigger for bigger areas
A larger brush holds more paint, so cloaks, horses, vehicle panels and other broad surfaces get an even coat in fewer strokes. Reach for a Kolinsky sable round in size 2 or 3, or the Micro & Gaming sable round in size 3 or 4. For flat panels and smooth layers, a flat sable brush or a Micro & Gaming sable flat (size 1 or 3) lays colour down quickly with a clean edge.
2. Go smaller for details
Eyes, buckles, rivets and fine armour trim need a brush with a sharp point and tight control. Our standard Kolinsky sable rounds run all the way down through 000, 4/0 and 5/0 to 10/0 — and the “short” size 0 and size 1 have 5mm hair (against our standard 10mm) for extra stiffness on tight detail. In the Micro & Gaming range, the sable 000 and 10/0 handle the fine work, and the synthetic 20/0 liner is there for the very finest lines.
3. Choose for the technique
You don’t need every brush on day one. As you pick up new techniques, add the specialist brush that suits them — an angled liner once you start edge highlighting, or a dry brush when you want to bring out texture fast.
There’s a brush for that
Painting eyeballs? There’s a brush for that. Basecoating a whole army? Yep. Drybrushing a tank? Definitely. Between our standard and Micro & Gaming ranges, every job on the hobby desk is covered:
Basecoating
Get colour down quickly and evenly with a larger round — standard sable round size 2 or 3, or a Micro & Gaming round size 3 or 4. Kolinsky sable’s full belly carries plenty of thinned paint, so you get smooth coverage without streaks.
Drybrushing
Catch the raised details on miniatures and terrain — chainmail, fur, stonework, tracks and weathered metal. Our tough synthetic dry brushes come in round oval, flat oval and deerfoot shapes, or get all three in the 3-brush dry brush set. The synthetic flat angulars (size 2 and 4) in the Micro & Gaming range are also great for edges and dry work. Keep your sable detail brushes away from drybrushing — it’s hard on natural hair.
Detail & highlighting
Reach the tiny bits without painting everything around them. A sable round in size 0, 00 or 000 is the go-to for faces and edge work, while the angled liner lets the tip follow edges and panel lines with real control. For the finest lines, the Micro & Gaming 10/0 sable and 20/0 synthetic liner are hard to beat.
Contrast & speed paints
One-coat paints flow best from a brush that holds a lot of paint and releases it evenly. A Kolinsky sable round in size 1 or 2 (standard or Micro & Gaming) carries enough to cover a whole panel in one pass, while keeping a point for pushing paint into recesses.
Brush sets
Cover several techniques without choosing every brush individually:
- Starter Kolinsky Sable Set (6 brushes) — Round 2, 0 and 00, Flat 2 and 0, and an Angular 1. Everything you need to paint a miniature start to finish, no guesswork.
- Kolinsky Sable Set of 8 Rounds — the detail painter’s ladder, from 10/0 up to size 2.
- Alex Paints Essentials (4 rounds) — the core sizes, picked by Alex Paints.
- Micro & Gaming Set of 12 with Case — sable rounds 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 000 and 10/0, a synthetic 20/0, sable flats 1 and 3, and synthetic flat angulars 2 and 4, all on polished walnut handles in a zip case. Base coat to final highlight in one kit (also available without the case).
Standard or Micro & Gaming — which range?
Our standard Kolinsky sable range is natural sable in rounds, flats and angled liners, with the widest choice of sizes — ideal if you want the finest point for display pieces, busts and historical figures, or want to build your kit one brush at a time.
Our Micro & Gaming range is designed with wargamers in mind, from base coats to fine highlights on 28–32mm miniatures. The polished walnut handles are ergonomic and comfortable over long painting sessions, and the range mixes sable rounds and flats with hard-wearing synthetic liners and flat angulars.
Plenty of painters use both: Micro & Gaming for getting armies on the table, and standard sable rounds for characters and showpieces. Every brush in both ranges works with oils, acrylics and enamels.
Look after them and they’ll look after you
A good sable brush can last for years with a little care — rinse often, never let paint dry in the ferrule, and reshape the point after cleaning. Our guide on how to care for Kolinsky sable brushes covers it all, and if you’re still deciding between hair types, read Kolinsky sable vs synthetic brushes.
Ready to find the right brush? Browse the full Hawk paintbrush range — designed for modellers, by modellers.
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