Micro Brushes

[rekoboy]

I found that I was spending lots of money on little, expensive packs of mini- or microbrushes for detail and figure painting. Then my wife gave me the idea of trying micro brushes from the cosmetics world. Bingo! A pack of 100 from Ama*** costs about £3, about 6 or 7 times cheaper at least than an equivalent quantity from the modelling world. They work fine with my Tamiya and Revell paints.

[JeffP]

Are they brushes?

They look like cotton buds.

[teaky]

I realise you are trying to be helpful, rekoboy, but this is exactly the kind of single use plastic product the world can do without.  They ought to be banned in the same way as plastic-stemmed cotton buds, plastic straws and plastic drink stirrers were a couple of years ago.

[57xx]

41 minutes ago, JeffP said:

Are they brushes?

They look like cotton buds.

 

You must have very small ears. 😆

[rekoboy]

They are not cotton buds, they have a fibre tip - I use them a lot, especially for painting 1:120 scale figures. I take the point about plastic waste - but the stems get re-used as wagon loads (steel rods) and I have not been able to find suitable genuine micro brushes at an affordable price.

[Phatbob]

I use wooden cocktail sticks to paint fine details on figures etc.  The wood grain acts like a brush at the tip.  Single use only, but I supose they're "green" as they're made from 100% recycled trees. 😉

[JeffP]

And can be resharpened.

[Silly Moo]

I have a box, once the tips have dried paint on them, I keep them to reuse as paint stirrers or for applying glue. I certainly get more than one use out of mine and I have thrown out very few. They are good for servicing locos too. There are lots of things you could use them for once the tips have gone. 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Silly Moo
Additional info.

[Phatbob]

11 minutes ago, JeffP said:

And can be resharpened.

 

Really?  I've never even tried!  Thanks for that.

 

[Wellyboots]

Would a 10/0 brush be a better option?

 

I have one of these; Abteilung 502 10/0 paint brush which I find good for applying very small amounts of paint. There are others available; Pro Arte; Daler Rowney and Da Vinci, and there's probably more.  

 

 

[The Johnster]

They don’t have to be single use either; acrylic paint can easily be washed out of them.  Similarly, cocktail sticks uses as microbrushes can be given exciting new careers as wagon loads, paint stirrers, dibbers, model vampire stakes, and anything else you use them for; paint on the ends doesn’t prevent this!

[rekoboy]

In response to the earlier comment on my environmentally unfriendly activities here is an example of effective recycling of the micro brushes. One of my favourite freight wagons, of which I have several, (German TT 1:120) (see my layout Kirchheim in the German railways section) is the BTTB/Tillig flat wagon or 'stake car' as the US translation has it! I am in the process of making a range of swappable loads for this flat wagon, all of which are based on an additional floor of thin poly sheet which will lift out easily together with the load. As you can see from the photo the stems of micro brushes make good round steel bars which after painting will be glued into the (pre-painted) poly sheet cradles on the additional floor. The load of three tubes in the background is also a result of recycling - they are from felt pens chucked out by my granddaughter.

Edited November 28, 2022 by rekoboy

[rekoboy]

And here is the finished product. The securing straps are strips of thick paper.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Well done.

Very environmentally friendly!!!

 

Mike.

[BR60103]

My dentist has used these to apply glue to hold in a filling (or something).  I wonder if I could get a discount by bringing my own.

 

[rekoboy]

And here is the load of tubes with other wagons loaded with home-made cargo! The tiny narrow-gauge loco is a souvenir from a railway museum in Lithuania! The coal load is genuine coal on a chunk of polystyrene packaging, the black tubes are from worn-out felt-tip pens from my granddaughter, and the truck is a part scratch-built LIAZ with the cab from a Czech kit.

[delticman]

Rekoboy, I am loving the old Woolworths tumbler switches on the baseboard edge, brings back memories of schoolboy pilfering days.