What sort of water do you use to clean your brushes?

[krieghund]

Tap water, despite the stuff round here being so hard you have to chew it. At the end of a session I give my brushes, all cheap synthetics, a clean with the stuff from Instar Paints. Seems to work.

[zemjw]

Tap water, fresh each session. Back in my enamel days the cleaning solution was more sludge than liquid, but water is cheaper to replace.

Brush soap when needed, but not on a regular basis.

Number of brushes? I have only thrown out a handful in over 40 years of use, so almost certainly more than 100. I always get a chuckle when a GW staffer asks if I need brushes

[Mason]

 

[Dolnikan]

I used to just use tap water but when I lived in a region with very hard water I switched to distilled water. Which is less complicated than it sounds because it's basically waste water from a condenser dryer that I then run over a 20 micrometer filter.

As for brushes, I have no clue. I go through them at quite a pace which also is why I only get cheap ones. And I also don't really toss them because even the utter messes can still find an occasional use.

[Condottiere]

I use tap water and a brush toilet...

[Fitz]

The tap water here in Christchurch NZ is pretty good, apart from being chlorinated in recent years, so I just use that with a little dishwashing detergent, or by preference, blue windscreen wiper fluid. The wiper fluid (I use Armorall) includes, as well as a surfactant, ammonia, which is a mild solvent for acrylic paint. If I wanted to go really overboard I'd add some isopropyl too, but that's too expensive here, so I reserve it for my airbrush cleaning solution.

[FifteensAway]

Shhh!!!

I have it on exceptional authority that the top painters (not me, besides I don't live in the right neck of the woods) use unicorn pee, has some sort of magical property apparently. 

As to brushes, have lots and replace as needed, don't buy into the Really Expensive brushes concept.  Just a decent brush with a sharp point and long bristles.  And a variety of other brushes.  Especially various sizes from quite small to larger with straight, "neat" edge and other types, especially for terrain work.  And those old brushes for dry brushing which is pure hell on brushes.  Whenever in local craft stores I check the paint department for sales on brushes and if on sale buy a brush or three to ensure extras on hand in case I over-abuse a brush.  Of course, I just paint to game table standard.  Maybe those real miniatures artists need those fancy, expensive brushes.

[Aethelwulf]

I dost useth rain-water, but it dost cometh out of the tap.

[2010sunburst]

Tap water here as well.  It’s as good as anything else, and much cheaper than most.  Never had any trouble with hard water either.  After all, you only put brushes away damp, so there shouldn’t be much scale left in them….
I do use Masters brush cleaner at the end of the session though. 
As to number of brushes, I have several dozen……all sorts of sizes and shapes, and a good handful of spares.  I don’t just paint small figures, I’m a modeller as well, working on almost anything and everything as the mood takes…...  I have a full set of rounds from OO to about size six of which two or three are size one Raphael 8408s or Series sevens for best work.  I also have several flats and filberts for drybrush on larger areas, and a couple of riggers for pin washes.  Lastly I have a couple of soft number six brushes used exclusively for varnish.  This collection has been built up over many years and some of the beaters used for mixing or rough work really show it 
I find I get about three years out of my “best” brushes before they get downgraded.  The others get used for everything else, primarily underpainting, metallics, mixing, and drybrush work. 

[Michi]

I clean my brushes in water from the tap for 40+ years now and use a single brush for up to 50 miniatures until it is worn - still good for drybrushing then...

[ced1106]

Also, might as well save the water you used to wash your miniatures to rinse your brushes. The conditioner you dip your brushes at the end of a painting session, rinse them in your clean rinse water for your brushes before painting.

[Easy E]

Tap Water in an ancient piece of small snack Tupperware.  Therefore, it is pretty dirty from old projects!

I also use a small plastic palette and most of my brushes are super-cheap versions from the local Big Chain store.  I typically have to replace the brushes once every 40-50 models.  However, they are dirt cheap and easy to source.

For paints I use Armypainter, Armypainter SpeedPaints, and cheap Big Box Chain store acrylics.  For basing I use water down PVA with sandbox sand, spackle, or just paint straight on the base.  If I need bases, I use washers from the local hardware store.   

I guess I am a budget wargamer.  If I can not source it locally I probably won't be using it in my projects.

[Daeothar]

I've used straight up tapwater here for about 30 years now, and it has not failed me yet. Also, it's pretty dang hard in this neck of the woods; it's actually a better mineral water than the bottled varieties in the stores. But this has had no discernable negative effects on my brushes over the years.

I have a size 1 Winston & Newton brush that I've had and used since 1996(!) and it's still my primary workhorse, even after all these years.

The rest of my brushes are mostly smaller Winston & Newton series 5 and 7 (I actually like using size 0000 for tiny detail work), most of which I use for many, many years. Then there are the cheap sets of brushes I buy at Action. They're my drybrushes, terrain brushes etc; they get to do all the tough, dirty and hard jobs, and they have a lifespan of about a year or so, before being replaced.

Overall, I think I have between 30 and 40 brushes I guess. But only about 5 or so are used regularly.

I do have several types of brush soap and threads like these usually awaken the guilt in me and then I tend to clean my brushes with them, but that's usually maybe once a year or so?

During painting, I use the same water mug for thinning my paints and rinsing my brushes. I do tend to do the latter quite thoroughly, and I then wipe them dry on a rag I keep for this very purpose. If even a slight paintstreak remains on the cloth, I rinse and repeat until the brush is clean.

Oh, worth mentioning is that I have used the very same water mug since I started out with acrylics somewhere in the early nineties. And I tend to not change the water in it when working on a project. At most it'll get a refill if it takes a long time or when it's hot.

The theory behind this is that the homeopathic amounts of paint that remain in the water will mix with the paints on the pallet, and will ever so slightly bind all the colours on the mini(s) together. I don't know if this even actually works or is noticeable, but I've been doing it since forever, it works for me and I'm a grognard at heart so I won't be changing my habits anytime soon

I do clean out the mug thoroughly when I change projects though. Oh; and when I have done metallics. I hate metallic flakes; they're course and get everywhere.

And to clarify; I aim to paint 100 28mm miniatures or equivalent a year. Some years I make it, some years I don't, but this will give you an indication of the time my brushes see actual use. Probably about 4 to 6 hours each week is what I can squeeze out of my free time on average. That's overall hobby time, so assembling, cleaning, converting, basing etc all are included in this, so actual painting time is about 2 to 3 hours a week...

[Mindenbrush]

Being retired, I can paint for around 6 hours a day during the week and 3 or 4 hours on the weekends so I am moving a lot of paint.

I use 2 jars cold tap water, 1 with a couple of drops of a well known baby shampoo and the other just plain water. I found that dish soap (Dawn etc) seemed to dry out the bristles. The 1st jar removes the bulk of the paint, the 2nd helps clean the brush.

At the end of each day I clean my brushes in some Vallejo Airbrush Thinner, wash in the cleaner water jar, use some more baby soap, rinse and then work in some hair conditioner.

I tend to use Rosemary Series 33 kolinsky sable brushes and they last around 4 months or 300 figures.

Cheers,

Graham W

[Kitsune]

I use the salty tears of my defeated opponents