Gear

Brushes

I got the new set of Kimera brushes, and haven't really touched any of my other brushes since.  The triangular shaped brushes are actually as versatile as they claim to be.

A few others I use:

Raphael 8404 #0

Winsor & Newton Series 7 #1, #0

Princeton Sable Brushes: These are the cheapest "kolinsky sable" brushes you can get.  Still worth it, I use these for doing oil washes and stuff like that.  Don't waste your money on synthetics...

...with a couple exceptions: Amazon.com: Princeton MiniMop  

And of course makeup brushes, but  I still use the minimop for the majority of my drybrushing.

I also have a set of Rosemary & Co drybrushes: MODEL DRY BRUSH SET   They are very nice.

Airbrush

Started off with a Badger Sotar 2020.  In retrospect, it was totally fine.  I learned a lot from that thing, and decided to "upgrade" and got the Harder & Steenbeck 2024 Ultra.  This made me realize that the Badger wasn't a piece of shit... Airbrushing is a pain in the balls.  Not for the impatient, you will spend more time cleaning and fucking around with your airbrush than actually painting.  It's great for priming, basecoating large models, and varnishing, but I don't think I'll ever use it for actual shading and highlighting. I know it's me, but thats just my experience.  

The Ultra is much easier to disassemble than the Badger, but the results are exactly the same.

A few things that make it easier:

Sprayout pot: Just get one, they're totally worth it

Stand: Seriously you need one.  The kind that clamps on your table.  If you don't have this, you'll spill paint all over the place, drop your brush and bend the needle, etc.

Paint

ProAcryl and Vallejo for 99% of what I do.

Stynylrez primers

Vallejo Mecha Matte Varnish

Best Black: Vallejo Model color Black - Without question.  I bought blacks from AK, Scale 75, Citadel, P3, etc.  and none look quite as black as the VMC.

Best Metallics: Vallejo Premium Airbrush Vallejo - Premium Airbrush Color 

Their "metallic black" is the darkest metallic I have found, and I use it on everything steel or iron colored.  These paints seem to do all the work for you, they cover very well, and require minimal if any thinning.  I'm talking about with a brush, but obviously they work great through an airbrush as well.

I've played around with some Citadel contrast paints for shits and giggles, but haven't really commited to using them on any actual army models.

Paint Bottles

I can't stand the fact that every company has their own stupid bottle design that doesn't work for shit, and you can't see the color through(new vallejo changed this thank satan).  So I re-bottle all my paints.  It's time consuming, but I dig the organization and having everything uniform.  I also add a silica-glass ball bearing into them for shaking.  DO NOT USE STAINLESS STEEL BALL BEARINGS FOR THIS . The stainless will react with some paints and ruin them.  I put one in my bottle of Flesh Tearers contrast, and a few months later, it had all gelled up around the ball like a big booger, changed color, and became unusable.

The bottles I use can be found on aliexpress, search for "pet dropper bottles" I use the 20ml, and they can fit pretty much any of the popular company's paint volume, if you have extra, just keep that for a top-off.  These have the best lids I've found, they're crazy cheap, and they have a lot of different sizes. they look like this:

Deburring Tools

Coming from a machining background, I already had a set of these Noga micro deburring tools, and it seemed pretty obvious to try them on models.  Needless to say, they are at my hobby desk permanently now.

The scraper has a perfect point on it, and I use that to make a mark where I want to drill for a barrel or pinning something.

The edge deburr tool gets used on larger models and edges of plasticard to knock the sharp edge off.

The hole deburr is used on barrels after drilling.  It puts a small chamfer on the inside of the hole that makes it look like the rest of the model.

Noga FT3000 | 3 Pc. Micro Deburring SetF: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific 

Pinning

I pin almost everything, especially 3d printed bits.  No matter what anyone says, printed parts are not as strong as injection molded parts, and when you drop a model with printed bits on it, they are the parts that break.  Pinning makes them a bit stronger.

Wowstick.  It's so worth it, I've used the hell out of this thing and it works great.  Only problem is finding drill bits for it, which I finally solved.

Bits.  This is the only place I could find reasonably priced bits that fit the wowstick.  If you're clumsy as me, you'll break them and need replacement.  I use the .8mm size.

Wire. I use this piano wire from K&S.  It's cheap and goes a long way.  Very thin for reinforcing small parts.  for example, I like to have a pin going as far as possible into any swords or other long skinny printed parts, this keeps them from breaking so easily.