fbpx JOIN LOGIN JOIN

The Truth Behind GW’s New $25 Paint Brushes?

By Rob Baer | April 8th, 2016 | Categories: Miniature Wargaming News & Rumors

shrug

If you missed it from last week, GW unveiled two new paint brushes that retail for around $25 each. Come see why the heck they are so expensive!

Artificer Brush Collection $69 (or around $25 ea)

99029999110_ArtificerBrushBundle01

Description

The Citadel Artificer brushes are the best brushes money can buy, made from the highest-quality sable hair and designed to help you achieve results you wouldn’t have thought you were capable of. This bundle gets you three, in XS, S and M sizes – a set of the greatest layering brushes imaginable, that’ll open up a whole world of potentially-incredible paint jobs on your Citadel miniatures!

So why are these brushes so expensive?

Well here’s what an “insider” has to say about the what has happened in the past:

 

Source: Rick Priestley (facebook)

Games Workshop don’t make brushes – they buy them in from Winsor & Newton who supply rebranded brushes based on their standard range. Just once – when I was there – we persuaded W&N to do a limited edition of a range based on their premium Series 7 brushes – which are made to a higher standard and are generally held to be the best brushes available. If that’s still the case, I would guess this is the same deal again – W&N Series 7 brushes sized to GW’s ‘inbetween’ brush sizes. If so I’m sure they’re very good. I generally go for Series 7’s myself – as you can buy the sizes you want and many good art suppliers offer them at a discount.

 

The Winsor Newtwon 4 rounds set of Series 7 brushes sell for about $75 at discounters indeed. Are these the same brushes that GW is currently offering though their stores?

Winsor and Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Watercolor Brush Sets $75

2016-04-07_0930

Originally commissioned by Queen Victoria in her favorite size—7! These Series 7 watercolor brush sets  are still made in the royal tradition out of only the finest Kolinsky Red Sable hair mounted within cupro-nickel ferrules attached to balanced, black, Italian Albata, polished wood handles. Handmade in England, a Series 7 brush should be part of any watercolorist’s available tools.

4 Small Rounds Set – This set includes 4 round brushes in sizes 0, 1, 2 and 3.

Vazalaar crunched the numbers on it from the Pound Sterling side of things below:

Man, this is becoming confusing. The Artificer colection cost £42 and on the WN site the WN 7 series 00, 0 and 1 cost together £37,1 thus when buying from GW website you pay £5.1 more than when you buy the same brushes from the WN website. Thus when you compare both products, which are the same from their official companies websites you pay around 13% more for the same collection of brushes, but with the GW name on it in comparison when you buy it from Winsor & Newton directly.

Phew

Either way it may be a good idea to have such qood quality brushes “on site” for hobbyists, the only question is if they will bite on the extra price tag. With GW these days it seems to only be crazy if it doesn’t work.

-How much are good tools worth to you?

Adepticon 2016 Review: w/ Special Guest Aaron Aleong &  Chris Mehrstedt Long War Episode 46

About the Author: Rob Baer

Virginia Restless, Miniature Painter & Cat Dad. I blame LEGOs. There was something about those little-colored blocks that started it all... Twitter @catdaddymbg