ZEM BRUSH Kolinsky Pure Sable Artist Brush Set Detail Sizes 10/0,0,2,4

These are pretty decent sable brushes for the price. As long as I keep the brushes clean and shaped, they hold their tips well.

Great for painting Warhammer 40k and other gaming miniatures. Four good brushes for the price of one English or German imported Kolinsky. Could easily be the primary brushes for a new or budget minded mini painter, or round out a collection of brushes for the more experienced mini painter. Highly recommend for the value.My better half and I have been using them for close to a year now. Recently bought an additional set for a friend. While they aren't as quite as fine a point as our much more expensive W&N and DaVinci branded Kolinsky brushes in our collection, but close enough for our skill, and close enough for being a fraction of the cost. More importantly, the ZEMs hold their point and control paint flow FAR better than any synthetic hair brush we've tried. Including some synthetics that cost more than the ZEMs. There's just no substitute for pure Kolinsky Sable hair. We use these for painting rank and file troops and using metallic paints to reduce wear on our more expensive import brushes. After painting painting the Dark Imperium and Know No Fear sets, the ZEMs are almost as good as new. The synthetics we've used would have needed replacement as they start to fishhook after a dozen models or so. Just rinse Kolinsky hair brushes regularly while painting and wash with the Masters brush soap periodically. I expect these to last a very long time. Essentially the ZEMs are our workhorses. The Winsor & Newton only coming out to paint things like facial highlights and eyes on leader and centerpiece models.Using the size 4 for basecoating and shading the largest areas like skin and armor plates. The size 2 for detail basecoating, shading and layering. The size 0 for the smallest details and edge highlights. The 10-0 is pretty much only used for eyes, it's just too small for anything else.When friends want to start painting their own miniatures, I gift them this set and a container of the Masters Brush Soap.

I own two sets of these brushes that I bought in 2019. They have now outlasted a Raphael and a Winsor and Newton Series 7 that are both falling apart and were purchased much more recently. They do show some wear & tear even though I am fairly good about washing and storing my brushes in a reasonable way. But brushes don't last forever and these are still very usable after four years of miniature painting. One of the small brushes has the coating peeling off of its handle and the tip is a bit wonky, and one of the larger ones has a loose ferrule. I consider this acceptable damage for the time period and amount of use (90+ miniatures painted in that time). The bristles on the larger brushes have held up very well. Overall, these were a good value.

I was extremely skeptical about purchasing these brushes because of how affordably priced they were. From my research I learned that all synthetic brushes begin to curl at the tips after using them. I purchased this set and a set of zem synthetic brushes at the same time.I am very please with both sets, the synthetic brushes have began to curl, while the Kolinsky brushes have not. They are superior. The hairs split when i do not put too much paint on the brushes, but hold very well when I do apply a good amount of paint on them.For the price point these are the best/most affordable brushes you can get. It's important to start with cheaper brushes until you learn how to take care of them.Obviously a $12-$15 brush will do a better job, but for someone who is beginning zem brushes are a great find!I will keep buying these brushes as needed.

Very good quality brushes and the seller has some of the best customer service I've ever received. They made a very small mistake on my order and so I emailed them to let them know and they not only made it right super quick, but gave me something extra for the inconvenience. I held off on my review so that I could paint some minis with the brushes and I have to say that they keep and point really well so far (though I haven't used them all that much, and I take REALLY good care of my brushes) and have a nice springiness to them. I'll update when the #2 wears out (I do almost everything with a 2), hopefully that will be a ways down the road and I'll be buying this exact same thing. The #4 worked really well when I used it to basecoat a mini. The 10/0 looks a bit bigger than my "insane detail" brush from army painter, but just as sharp if not sharper. I haven't had occasion to use it yet, but my hope is that because of the bigger belly, it might not dry out as quickly as the "insane detail" brush does. I painted with the #2 for about 5 hours and didn't notice any strain on my hand, so it was plenty comfortable and easy to hold.

Sable seems of good quality, but the shaping of the bristles seems a bit off. A little difficulty maintaining a good and consistent point when working with them. Yes, the price on these is good. No, they do not paint as well as the more expensive options out there.

Nothing like a sable brush for how it holds the paint or water and then smoothly releases it. I have other, more expensive brushes, but these do a great job at laying down layers of egg tempera pigments.

I've owned high quality brushes before. I recently got back into painting and decided that instead of immediately going back to brushes that were $30 a piece, I would buy this set, thinking "well, it's still kolinsky sable so it should be better than some generic GW brush" but I was wrong. The only brush that performs is the extremely fine detail brush, the others all have wayyyy too any errant hairs. The brushes also tend to splay their bristles out even while they're loaded with paint. I expected better when the brushes are essentially brand new. Next time I'll just buy the higher quality brushes right out of the gate