Hobby Lobby (a chain of big box hobby stores) recently opened a new location just up the street from my house, so I decided to go and check it out. Their selection of material useful to the miniatures hobbyist was actually pretty limited, and in most cases grossly overpriced. They mostly seem to specialize in selling ugly home and garden “decorating” pieces, scrapbooking supplies, and assorted fabric and notions for the sewing set.

They do have a section for regular art supplies like brushes and paint and the like, and since it was the Grand Opening all their brushes were on sale for 50% off. I decided to take a chance and try out some of the “Master’s Touch” line, which is evidently a house brand. I wasn’t able to get a very firm idea of just what type of bristles they used, but from the cryptic notation “Kolinsablon” on the back, I assumed it was some kind of synthetic. I would soon learn that it was the kind of synthetic that makes really lousy brushes.

I use a number 0 for most of my base work on 25mm figs, so I started with one of those. Initial results were fairly promising, despite the odd handle design, which started off narrow near the ferrule and then rapidly bulged out into the largest hunk of wood I’ve ever seen on a mini-scaled brush. The bristles had a nice point, but were flexible enough to glide over details well, and the brush seemed to deliver paint quite smoothly and cleaned up nicely.

All too soon, however, the honeymoon was over. I used that number 0 brush to do most of the base work on the four West Wind Zombie Hunters and about six of the Superfigs Civillians pack when I started to notice the point begin to both hook and split rather badly. Two more of the civvies and it was pretty much junked.

Now I take very good care of my brushes. Careful cleaning after each use in a Silicoil brush cleaning tank filled with brush cleaner followed by proper upright storage is my rule. So this brush experienced pretty much best case care and maintenance and the point still degraded so badly as to be nearly useless after painting less than a dozen minis. That’s just unacceptable in a brush that normally sells for five bucks. That kind of money will buy you a decent Reaper brush in any game store, and will buy you quite a nice kolinsky sable brush if you make the trip to a real art supply store.

I wasn’t expecting too much from the rest of my Master’s Touch collection, and they didn’t disappoint. The 12/0 I bought to dot eyeballs with turned out to be far too stiff and have much too short a point for that application. I guess I should have looked a bit closer before I bought it. Here too, the point started to hook almost immediately. I had a couple of others in the below-0 size range, and all had bristles much too stiff to do their work properly, to say nothing of the impediment of their wacky handles, which proved to be much more of a problem on the smaller brushes than on the size 0.

Overall, these brushes suck. Big time. Avoid them like the plague. Even at $2.50 a throw they’re a rip-off. Don’t waste your money. “Master’s Touch?” I don’t think so!

Pros: I guess they do apply paint to miniatures, at least briefly.

Cons: Miserable lack of durability, wacky handles, overpriced

Final Verdict: 1/5

Source: Purchased from Hobby Lobby

MSRP: $4.99 each

Popularity: 9% [?]

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