3 Colours Up Review – Citadel Brushes
August 11, 2011 by elromanozo
I'm sure most of you know about the Citadel brushes, a staple of the Games Workshop hobby range, but there is still much to discuss about this product...
Years ago, they were horrific brushes... Nylon monstrosities that forked after a few hours of painting, that only twelve year old newbies and their helpless mothers would consider buying. They still have a bad reputation. Maybe that's why they renewed the whole brush range a while back.
They are now apparently hand made from pure Kolinsky sable, except the Drybrushing brushes (part ox hair and part nylon) and the stippling brush (pure nylon), which is certainly a step in the right direction.
The Citadel brushes are also extremely beginner friendly: They're limited in number, and named according to their most obvious use, from "Fine detail brush" to "Basecoat brush", "Large drybrush", and even the laconically named "Standard brush"... And they're all color coded for ease of use !
I'm always on the lookout for good painting gear, and I hadn't tested any new brushes in a while, so I decided to give Citadel a chance... I tested a few. How did they fare ?
Frankly, better than their reputation predicted.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Basecoat brush, large enough to hold a lot of paint yet precise enough not to make a mess of things. The so called "Standard brush" is exactly that : Standard. It gets the job done as long as you don't expect precision work... That's what the "Detail" brushes are for.
The drybrushing went well, with the help of the "small drybrush", but it's hard to go wrong with that.
A brush for each task, a task for each brush.
I must say I was amazed at the straightforwardness of the whole process... I remember the questions I asked myself as a beginner : Is this a job for a 0 brush or just a 1 ? Would it be too tedious with a 000 ? None of that here, thanks to the self evident names.
That said, I was puzzled (to say the least) at the "Stippling brush"... These rough, thick nylon fibers will scratch paint off if you're not careful. I hear some painters use this for large random patterns, such as camouflage, mud or rust on vehicles... All of which you can do easily with a filbert.
Maybe I'm missing the point, but it seems to me you can easily find a cheaper replacement for the aforementioned implement... and a torn bit of blister foam is infinitely preferable for "stippling", as they say, while being much safer for your work.
As easy to use as they are, the Citadel brushes also easy to use up... I've had to keep re-making their point regularly, and my "Standard Brush" is already hopelessly forked after a single miniature (which I guess for tabletop result would be equivalent to two or three). All of the Citadel brushes react in such a way, I'm afraid.
This is, in my opinion, inexcusable for hand-made sable brushes... Even though they're cheaper than other brushes of the same material, they're still more expensive than synthetic brushes that would last just as long...
Here's my observations about the Citadel brushes in a nutshell, each criteria rated out of four stars:
I'd say the Citadel brushes will serve, in a pinch, if you need a brush with those minis you just bought and can't be bothered to go to another store.
They will be more than enough for beginners who do not know if they will keep painting, but still want to try out good brushes at a fraction of the price of the "posher" brands... People who take up painting for good would do well to move away from the brand after their first brushes wear out... or even before that!
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great review, I love how in depth you went with the qualities of the brushes.
I have a ton of Citadel brushes, both the new line and the older blue ones and while they do fork after a while it usually takes a couple of hundred minies, so how you got them to fork after 1 mini I can’t understand.. Take care of your brushes and they will keep on painting for years 🙂
Try a sable watercolor brush, you’ll see what a brush that doesn’t fork looks like…
BoW Romain
the same here I do like the army painter ones more but I never had it that they forked after one mini …never.
I’ve never had a GW brush last more than a mini or two without splitting.
Silly GW, you can’t sell fanboy hair as Kolinsky sable.
Nice review 🙂
Great article Romain, I’m looking forward to future reviews of other brushes. I invested in some Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes and haven’t looked back. They are more pricey than GW brushes but the quality is great and they last a lot longer.
I’ve used plenty of makes of brushes but always go back to the GW ones in the end.
I only used gw dry brushes for everything else I use rosemary a and windsor and newton but thats because I’m not really a gamer more a painter and another thing I’ve had my brushes for nearly two years now and not a hair out of place.
Has anyone checked out the brushes at mircomark.com? I’ve been wondering how good those are, and was looking to buy a 30/0 or two.
I bought a windsor newton series 7, never looked back… Last for ages and well worth there price
Love the picture of the Citadel toothbrush in there
After your other review of painting brushes and how to maintain them, I chose not to use GW brushes as it seemed to be a fight always fir a sharp point.
Going to pick up some good brushes based on your advice.
Thanks again Romain
From a pure consumer point of view this review is perhaps the best I’ve read yet on Beasts of War. Good job! I’ve personally just moved from cheap brushes to more expensive one, though for most painters I’m pretty certain such brushes are not needed. In my experience, army painters range of brushes are far superior to GW brushes and for the same or even lower price. I’ll be interested to see if that opinion holds up to the master’s review.
Personally I think it’s your luck whether you get a decent brush from GW because I’ve used them for ages and they still work fine for me. Love these articles and Romain has teached me a far more interesting way of painting in the past few videos.
P.S. A review on the Citadel spray gun and possible alternatives would be much appreciated.
THE VOICE OF ROMAIN HAS SPOKEN!
I always use Army-Painter brushes because of the heavier wood and triangular handle, very comfortable and after around 40 minis im not having any forking problems that werent my fault to begin with.
My first use of army painter brushed left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I found a similar issue with what Romain is describing, where they simply started to split after one or two mini’s. Not saying this is always the case, but it put me off them.
I take it you use the old saliva trick to make them pointy then? 😛
I always used GW brushes from when I first started collecting about 20 odd years ago, even still got a couple of red-handles still floating about somewhere, but when I saw the new black-handled ones in Hobbycraft I thought GW was trolling it’s 3rd party stockists by selling them awful brushes. Then I saw them in a GW store…
Army Painter and Winsor and Newton from now on!
Harry – Warmill
I’ve just returned to painting after a long dry spell and am finding the BoW site invaluable to hone old dull skills. Sadly this review comes about two weeks late for me after spending a good deal of money on GW brushes and paint. Still, I am a humble sort and happy to take the advice and criticism of those that have more experience. Can’t wait for the paints review as on my shopping list is the complete GW paint range come pay day. I think I might just hold out for more words of wisdom from Romain.
Thank you @darkdreams !
Games Workshop is fine (excellent, even) for many painters… But the best advice I can give you is not to be faithful to a single range, not to buy everything in a range, and see what perks and flaws they all have.
Wait for the articles, and see what type of paint you need for the minis you want to paint !
BoW Romain
Thanks for the reply 🙂 I am a GW fanboy at heart, cut my teeth on Rogue Trader back in the day and had a huge ork army painted with nothing but the GW range.
It never occured to me that other brands could suppliment GW’s offerings so well, I guess we live and learn. Anyhoo, as much as I appreciate the reply, get back to work kind sir, there are tutorials needing filming and I have almost worked my way through the site already 😉
Keep up the great work 🙂
Well I’m relieved. I thought it was all something I was doing to make the brushes fork, which isn’t to say I’m completely without blame but still…
I shall have to give the army painter brushes a try though. I’ve spent a lot of money on the GW ones, so I could do with a change.
Very nice review Romain, thank you.
I haven’t yet tried the new brushes, I was just about to buy the full range pack of Citadel brushes but now I’m not too sure. Thing is I’ve never looked at other brands for painting minis and I don’t know where to start. Could someone help point me in the right direction for good quality brushes please? I’m not too worried about the price. Having read this review though I want to mention that none of my fine detail brushes from the old range have forked or worn out after doing so few minis, they normally make it through… Read more »
I used to work for GW as a store manager a number of years ago and noticed a real drop in quality once GW stopped producing the 3 brush sets with red handles (in the early 2000s, I believe). Those brushes would develop hooks, but never splayed. Every GW fine detail brush I’ve bought since has splayed within a few models’ use (and how they were looked after was irrelevant). I have recently discovered Kolinsky Sable brushes by Creative Models and I HIGHLY recommend them. Not too expensive in sets and going really strong even after painting around 70 models.
Maybe Romain could review the creative models kolinsky line next. I have just Ordered Five of them myself and want to know if they’re a good quality product.
I’ll add it to my list… There are quite a few brands out there !
BoW Romain
Great review. I’m quite interested in Army Painter brushes; they have a good selection and I’ve heard quite some of the brushes are better than their price would suggest.
Looking forward to more material.
I use rosemary and co , handmade kolinsky sabe at a similar, or cheaper, price than the GW range.
I do use the really big GW drybrush on occasion for a tank or something, drybrushing destroys brushes anyway, and I find that big brush a handy thing to have.
I’ve struck some gold with paint brushes here in Sweden. A line of stores called Biltema has a set of brushes meant for aquarelle painting. To an amateur like me they feel about the same as most other brushes, possibly even slightly better than GW (I’m not saying GW is good), and quality-wise they are probably quite on par with GW, give or take a little. As for price though, and this is the good bit, you get a full set of 000 through 12 at just less than twice the price of a single GW fine detail brush. I… Read more »
I should clarify that when I’m referring to GW brushes I mean the old range since I’ve not used the new and improved one.
Speaking for myself as well as others, we’re always interested in good deals and quality equipment !
The more info you can give, the better : Everyone here will be grateful, not just the BoW team !
BoW Romain
I’ve tried some googling. Unfortunately the brushes are very generic, no distinguishing design elements and nothing on the blister except for store info. I can only go on all small details as a whole and I’ve found the following hot leads. This is the set in question. http://www.biltema.se/sv/Fritid/Lek-och-hobby/Konstnarsmaterial/Pensel/Penslar-set-om-15/ Manufacturer Jiangdu Longjiang Brush Factory looks promising, they manufacture at least three kits that look very much like three out of four of the kits that Biltema sells. The following kit is a very close match to the one in question, only number of brushes and the color of the handle (including… Read more »
Aye, if it would be possible to get some more info on these, that would be great. Especially if you manage to find out what company makes those for the store, that would be really useful. Thanks for your help.
Are these the ones? http://www.biltema.se/sv/Fritid/Lek-och-hobby/Konstnarsmaterial/Pensel/Penslar-set-om-15/
These http://www.biltema.se/sv/Fritid/Lek-och-hobby/Konstnarsmaterial/Pensel/Akvarellpenslar-set-om-4/ seem to be made of something kolinsky-like (marten).
Corrent, i wrote a pretty long post with some interesting links last night but its awaiting approval.
These are indeed quite cheap; both sets for some 6,5 €.
I would classify them as good value for the money. They are by no means good brushes, but they are more than enough for amateurs and i would say that they are easily on par with the old red GW brushes, I have not had a chance to use the blue ones very much so I think they are about the same (as detailed in my first post) but 15 brushes, five of which are 000-2 which are very useful for miniature painting, at €6,5 (that’s with Swedens 25% VAT btw) is hard to argue with. Kolinsky brushes from companies… Read more »
More, actually. But I’m intrigued by the second set I’ve posted above; they also seem to be made of some small beast’s hair, similar in appearance to the Siberian weasel that gives hair for kolinsky, yet still very cheap. If you’ll happen to get a chance to try them, I’d very much like to know how they fare.
I do have some fairly big sets of models coming up but i probably won’t have time to pick up the paint brush for at least a month, I’m completely buried in other work right now.
I think it’s not Kolinsky sable, but it’s sable nonetheless…
These do seem like they’re excellent value, but are they available outside of Sweden ?
BoW Romain
If jonatan finds out who makes them we can then see if they export elsewhere as well.
If only my big post from tonight can be approved you will have some goodness to go on.
@jonatanrullman, from what you’re telling me, these brushes appear to be nylon brushes… Although I’ve never tried this specific brand, experience tells me they don’t last very long. However, considering the price, you can certainly afford them if they’re good ! The “weird numbers” are the brush size, incidentally. Brushmakers are trying to “normalize” the sizes somewhat, but for now, alas, a “number 2” brush from one brand just may ormay not be the exact same size as one from another brand. You can, however, rest assured that pretty much every number 1 and number 2 brushes will be suited… Read more »
They are indeed, like i said in my first post, at this price i don’t need to care if they only last 10 minis. For a pro a real brush that lasts years and years might be a good investment but for an amateur like me, and i dare say 95% of this site, cheap but good nylon brushes are probably a very good idea.
You misunderstand (how i’m not quite sure), they numbers have some weird printing defects, especially 12.
Oh, sorry about the misunderstanding…
At about 7 euros a whole set, this is a great deal indeed ! i’ll try to get my hands on some of them…
BoW Romain
I was once told that to paint with acrylics you don’t use a natural hair brush and I have found this to be true. I use http://www.michaels.com/Artist%27s-Loft%E2%84%A2-White-Synthetic-Acrylic-Brush-Set%2C-5-pc./fa1140,default,pd.html?start=10&cgid=products-artsupplies-artists loft for my base coating/dry brushing and Craft Smart brushes for my detail. Both of these brushes have been made specifically for acrylic painting and cost me less $8.00 for both packs. Its all about brush care the last me as long as a expensive brush would sometimes longer and work just as well. the biggest difference is I get 9 brushes compared to one of the main hobby line.