Review Hawk's Miniatures, miniature brushes.

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Henk

A Fixture
Joined
Jun 14, 2018
Messages
1,491
×× please note, that during extended testing, I have found an issue with the fitment of the ferrules to the handles. I have added my findings to the end of the review ××




Hawk's Miniatures have introduced a new set of Kolinsky Sabel brushes, with short walnut handles, especially for miniature painters.

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The full set consists of 7 round brushes with Sabel hair heads, and 2 flat and 1 liner brush, with synthetic heads. All brushes have the same walnut handle, which are considerable shorter than standard brushes that usually used by figure painters.

First impressions are good. The look of the handles is of course a personal preference, I happen to like natural wood and wood grain, and these handles are certainly good looking in my opinion. The shape of the handles is rare, brush handles usually come either straight or slightly tapered, and the handles are also noticeably thicker than most other brands.

The brushes are packed in a plastic wrapper, with a hard plastic sleeve to protect the head from damage. All brushes in my set have good heads, without fraying or splitting, and all come to a good sharp point. The ferrules are not crimped on the handle, which means that they will have to rely on glue to stay in place.
The sizing of the brush heads is a bit odd, they are about two sizes smaller than contemporary brushes. Not a problem in use, but something to be aware when ordering individual brushes on line.
Two of my brushes don't have the ferrule mounted straight on the handle. I guess that this is a production quality control error, but it does not affect the brush itself. It may actually help to get into an awkward crevice or such.


Using the brushes.

I compared the no.4 brush from Hawk's, with a no.2 from W&N Series 7, and a MKIII no.2 from Broken Toad, because the heads are similar in size. I used Vallejo Acrylic paint, thinned with water and Army Painter Airbrush thinner.

The brushes perform very well., the belly readily takes a good volume of paint, and the loaded head forms a very good point. The brush release the paint very consistently and controllably, the larger brushes will coat larger surfaces aswell as being capable of painting finer lines and smaller detail.
The shorter handle is great, as it doesn't interfere with my optivisor, or my close up lamp which I usually have very close to the subject.

I have added images showing the brush heads loaded with paint, to show their shape. Note that the BrokenToad brush is past its best, as it has been one of my heaviest used brushes this past year.

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The flat brushes are good for larger surfaces, and the angled shape allows good acces into tight corners. Unfortunately the synthetic heads do not behave as well as the round Sabel brushes. The heads have a tendency to split somewhat, possibly because they are quite short.

Of course, I can not predict how well these brushes will age. The heads on the larger sizes certainly look and feel on par with contempary brushes, and small size brushes are always hit and miss. I am a little dubious about the fitting of the ferrules to the handle, hopefully the glue will hold.

×× 12-11-2022 during extended testing the no.4 brush, after cleaning the brush, whilst drying the head and handle with a paper towel, the ferrule pulled out of the handle. It appears that any glue inside the handle, was either insufficient, or was weakened through immersion in the water. It is quite possible to reinsert the ferrule, and use a beter glue like PVA, but it is disappointing that it happened after this little use.××

Conclusion.

The brushes are very nice to work with, the heads hold a good volume of paint, and keep their shape well. The short handles are good for close-up painting of fine detail.
However, the issues with the ferrule and handle are disappointing, and much be considered when deciding on purchase.
 

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Hi Henk

Thanks for the review on these , think I might give a equivalent to a size 1, 0 a try

Have you used them for detail work yet ?

Happy benchtime

Nap
 
Hi Henk

Thanks for the review on these , think I might give a equivalent to a size 1, 0 a try

Have you used them for detail work yet ?

Happy benchtime

Nap

You're welcome Kevin.

Not yet, but I will later today, and I'll update after. I'll do a comparison of relative sizes as well.
 
Hi Henk,
Thank's for a closer look. I was going to buy a set, but those wonky brushes are really off putting. I think John should rectify this with the producer and inspect his stock.
cheers
Richie
 
Hi Henk,
Thank's for a closer look. I was going to buy a set, but those wonky brushes are really off putting. I think John should rectify this with the producer and inspect his stock.
cheers
Richie

I have emailed John about the issue with some of the brushes, hopefully for John they were an exception, or any production issues can be sorted.
 
Right, update time.

I've just found out how the ferrules are attached to the handle...

A hole is drilled into the handle, and the ferrule is inserted into that, and glued. The no.4 brush that I was using to base coat some warhammer Miniatures, separated as I cleaned the brush. Upon checking the other brushes that I have tried out, another two could be pulled out of the handle.

The fit is a tight fit, and it is quite possible to re-glue the head, but it is disappointing that it happens this quick after purchase, especially as the brushes are very nice to paint with.

I will amend my review accordingly.
 
Hi Henk,
I think you have already predicted how these will age, it's such a shame as John is a good guy and needs to rectify this with his source.
Your review has 100% made up my mind.
cheers
Richie
 
Hi Henk

Thanks for continued update and the honest comments , this is showing the value of reviews

Hope this quality is sorted , must admit never had separated issues with the other brushes John carries so hope this is sorted soon for him

Nap
 
I am a "glass half full" type of person when it comes to these kind of things, I like to concentrate on the positive, rather than emphasise the negative. It is a real shame that these brushes have these issues, because I really like the size and shape of the handles, and so far the heads are actually painting very well. I will fix the ferrules back into the head, and persevere with them for now. Having said that, I have always reviewed items honestly, and fairly.
 
I have emailed John about the issue with some of the brushes, hopefully for John they were an exception, or any production issues can be sorted.


Hi Henk,
Thanks for the review and sorry to hear about the ferrules issue that you have experienced.
I am just back from a weekend in Telford at the Scale Model World show and just catching up on things. But I don't find an email from you, I will ping your a PM here with my direct email address.

I will take the issue up with the person who manufacture these for me and see if we can get to the bottom of the issue (thanks for the vote of confidence Richie). I will also check the rest of the stock as I send them out in future. But means they will come unwrapped for the time being.

Regards,
 
Hi Henk,
Thanks for the review and sorry to hear about the ferrules issue that you have experienced.
I am just back from a weekend in Telford at the Scale Model World show and just catching up on things. But I don't find an email from you, I will ping your a PM here with my direct email address.

I will take the issue up with the person who manufacture these for me and see if we can get to the bottom of the issue (thanks for the vote of confidence Richie). I will also check the rest of the stock as I send them out in future. But means they will come unwrapped for the time being.

Regards,


Hi John,
You get the issues resolved and my vote of confidence will be with an order for a few sets.
I not only use sable brushes for painting I also use them for sulpting too and I need to know they are robust enough.
cheers
Richie
 
Hi John,
You get the issues resolved and my vote of confidence will be with an order for a few sets.
I not only use sable brushes for painting I also use them for sulpting too and I need to know they are robust enough.
cheers
Richie

No problems Richies,
I am going to the White Rose Xmas bash if you are so we can have a chat there :)
 
×× please note, that during extended testing, I have found an issue with the fitment of the ferrules to the handles. I have added my findings to the end of the review ××.

Following on from Henk's comment and my previous response.

I have spoken to the owner of the factory where I have these brushes manufactured who has looked at the samples they kept from the initial production run. Upon investigation there seems to have been an issue with the glue they had used. Which I am told has been rectified now.

So going forward I will be checking all the current stock of brushes and making sure they are fixed properly until I restock. This does mean that at the moment these brushes will not come in their plastic bags as I need to unwrap to check them.

Anyone else who experiences this issue should contact me by PM on here or via direct email and I will resolve the issue to the best of my ability.

Henk, thanks again for the review and apologies for the ferrules issue.

Regards,
John Fitzgerald
Hawk Miniatures
 
Hi All,
I was talking to John a while back and he resolved this issues......
I have since purchased quite a few sets from John, not the chunky handle type but the slim sable brushes.

Honestly I have abused these brushes with oils, acrylics and sculpting medium's. They stand up magnificently.
I would like a couple of firmer ones added to the range for sculpting, but they have done everything I have asked of them.

As for the painting I've used more acrylics than oils and again they have done everything that I needed them to.
The points are very good and hold and distribute the paint lovely, infact I have a lot of others including series 7
and to be honest I cannot see me using any others. They are competively priced so if you wreck one or two it's not an
issue and just buy some more.
If you use a lot of metallics you could have a set just dedicated to them. They only work out at about £3.30 per brush
and a very good sable brush for that price.

John has my vote.
cheers
Richie
 
I would like to add my tuppence worth too, after using these during the last year or so.

I have been using them a lot, I have not replaced my worn out favourite Broken Toad brushes yet, because the Hawk brushes are performing very well, and are lasting well too. As expected, the smaller sizes are suffering a bit more than the larger, but that is possibly also down to my abuse, but overall, I wholeheartedly recommend these.

And as Richie also pointed out, they are outstanding value for money.
 

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