First Freehand

I got one of those fancy, made in England, weasel hair brushes to see what all the fuss was about (the Chinese ones that I mentioned a few posts back were about as good as you'd expect; which is to say, not at all). I couldn't imagine a #1 brush being worth $16, but I happened to be in a real artist supply store that carried them so I figured I'd pick one up, be disappointed with it, and lambast it on the blog.

But I'm afraid I can't do that.

If you've read some of my other posts, you may have realised that I am pretty much a cheapskate. I use craft paint instead of the 'good stuff'. I recycle even the cheapest, lousiest miniatures. I make my own 'custom' army carriers out of used cardboard boxes. And I have used just about every brand of cheap brush imaginable.

And this thing, this $16 worth of marmot hair, has completely changed my perception of value, at least as far as paintbrushes are concerned.

I've never even attempted any sort of freehand before, but with this Excalibur of brushes in my hand, I couldn't resist. I started with something simple... I had decided to paint an Iron Night straight out of the Codex for the next Apocrypha Project marine, mainly because I felt like drybrushing something, and I thought it might be fun to make the little shield that they wear on their left shoulder.

I had planned on using transfers for the two tactical arrows (one on each pauldron), but I went ahead and painted them.

And boy's howdy, I'm glad I did. I know it doesn't look like much, but this is a HUGE accomplishment. It's so HUGE, I'm going to center it and put it in bold.

HUGE!

See? Huge.