I was mooching around Islington in London the other day with a friend and we stumbled across this art shop called Cass Art. I was looking through their brushes and I noticed the Windsor and Newton Brushes were on offer, but I couldn’t find them, whilst looking I found these Sable brushes with the Shops branding on them. Normally I’d carry on looking for the W&N Series 7 but then I saw the price for these Cass Art brushes. Read on to find out how much I paid and what I think about these brushes.
There’s my receipt. That’s right, I paid £12.45 for 4 sable brushes. They were buy 4 for the price of 3 (cheapest free). Three of the brushes I bought are big as well, size 1, 2 and 3! For this price, they’re going to be naff right? Well let’s have a look.
Quick wash and clean with Brush Cleaner and the bristles hold their shape and have a lovely point. All four brushes have really good points and a nice full bodied shape. Plenty of bristles to load up and hold a lot of paint.
This size 3 brush undercoated this Skaven model in next to no time. Bigger brush, means less strokes, which is better for a smooth paint job. The point was so good I could easily reach and paint into small tiny details like the recesses in the chain mail. Despite being such a large brush I felt the bristles were perfect stiffness. They weren’t soft and floppy like water colour brushes and they weren’t stiff and rigid like synthetic brushes.
The size 1 brush also had a marvellous tip and despite being loaded up with paint I found it easy basecoat the fur quickly and smoothly. The point allowing me to get right up to the edge of the furline
I used the size 2 brush to wash Seraphim Sepia over the fur. Even fully loaded with wash the brush holds it’s shape wonderfully. I was careful not to get any paint or wash into the ferule (metal part). If I did and it had dried the bristles would ‘fish tail’ and split.
Finally I paint some Deathclaw brown highlights on the face with the 00 size brush. Similar story here compared to the other brushes, good shape, great point and firm spring in the bristles made it easy to be accurate with the brush.
Conclusion.
It’s too early to say these brushes are the greatest brushes in the world, but my first impressions are positive. I don’t have anything negative to say. My favourite bit is the price. Four brushes cost me less than £13.
They have a website and you can order the brushes from there. There are 8 sizes and the 4 for 3 offer is on until 7th October 2018.
I used my Garfy’s Get a Grip in the pictures above. Garfy’s Get a Grips available to order with same day dispatch here or here for non UK buyers.
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I've used W&N series 7 for years but noticed a big dip in quality, these look promising.
great stuff thank you ,,,,,
thanks always looking for alt brushes. W&N have had QC problems since moving to china and the Raphael 8404s i love are hard to get hold of in Canada. SO i've been trying local shops house brands but with meh results. I'll have to give these a go 🙂
Wow, a glimpse of the future ? (reading this 23/9/2018).
A great review, thanks Garfy.
Accidentally posted two posts today. Tried to reschedule this one but it's not having any of it. Enjoy the early bonus content 🙂