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Workhorse Brush

When I upgraded my brushes to Winsor & Newton Series 7's a few years ago, I started paying more attention to brush care.  With the brushes' higher cost, I wanted to get as much life out of them as possible.  For me that meant keeping an older brush around to do my painting dirty work.

Before I started using the S7's, I was pretty rough with my brushes.  I was guilty of all of the brush sins, including things like stabbing at models sometimes with the brush and letting paint get into the ferrule regularly.  While this wasn't a big deal when I was spending a buck a brush, I knew I had to change my habits with the new brushes, but doing so would slow me down.  Lets face it - when you're base coating, dry brushing, or otherwise just trying to lay paint down quickly, doing things right takes more time.

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Miniature Sealant

Once a miniature hits the table, it's inevitably going to be subjected to the rigors of gaming.  Even the most careful of gamers will have accidents.  It's painful to see hours of hard work spent painting a figure vanish in one quick tabletop accident, but that's why most gamers seal their miniatures after painting them.

So how do you want it?

Sealants come in a variety of finishes, but for the most part they can be grouped as gloss, satin, and matte.  Most people prefer a matte finish on their gaming miniatures but this brings with it a problem.  Unfortunately the strength of a sealant is usually proportional with how glossy the finish is, meaning matte sealants tend to offer the least amount of protection to miniatures.  This isn't as much of an issue with a display pieces but with a model that will face the rigors of the game table it means being more susceptible to damage.

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Makeshift Miniature Braces

When I first started painting miniatures one of the things that was suggested was to not hold a miniature by a freshly painted area so as to not accidentally rub paint off of the model.  It's still a practice that I follow when I can, and part of that has been coming up with a few ways to mount and hold miniatures securely without having to worry about disturbing a paint job.  Most painters develop their own methods; here are a few of mine.

Binder Clip

The biggest deciding factor on how I mount my miniatures is if I base them before I paint them or after.  My usual preference is to base the model after I paint it if possible  - that means there's no base making it harder to get my brush into the underside of the model.  I also tend to clip the pewter tab that connects a models feet and pin them to the base with brass rod.  This makes it easier for me to base them (no tab to deal with covering) and opens up some options for mounting, as shown here.

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