Lethal Shadows Sable Review —An easier way to quality

Going to a wargaming convention can be a pain for a painter. You’re carrying models, paints, a palette, brushes, tools, and usually whatever swag you can grab. It’s a heavy load.

Luckily for your painting adventures, I tested what I think is an excellent brush for travel or if you’re trying to cut back on your brush collection. Let’s dig into Lethal Shadows Sable Scythe brush tips for their Paint Scythe brush.

First off, if you’ve never used the Paint Scythe, it’s a metal brush with interchangeable heads. We’ve done a review in the past, but this was my first time using this brush system. I won’t reiterate anything from that article, but I will say the weight of this brush feels amazing. The balance I get from it doesn’t match anything else I own. I also heard from other folks at the two cons I visited that people with hand tremors or issues prefer the weight of the brush, so if your hands get fatigued often, give it a shot.

Onto the brushes. The way this brush works is that by unscrewing the brush, you can change the head of the brush to a different size or, in this case, using Sable. For the uninitiated, a sable brush is made from the hairs of a Siberian Weasel. Yes, you read that right, a weasel.  These hairs are prized for their ability to hold a fine point and retain both moisture and paint material, and Lethal Shadows mentions they are humanely harvested.

The downside to such a great bristle is cost. Sable brushes can run into the thousands, and for good reason. Sable fur has to be gathered humanely, arranged, and assembled into brush heads by hand for the most part. And Kolinsky Sable is exclusively produced in Siberia, generally considered the finest in the world.

This is where Lethal Shadows proves once again to be budget friendly, as their Sable tip pack is $40 and contains sizes 1, 0, 00, and 000, some of the more common sizes for miniature painting.

But how do they paint?

In my test, I had a limited palette, which I figured would be a great test for these brushes. First, I used the 1 to lay down a basecoat, then follow up with the 0 for highlights, and ultimately the 00 for the eyes. Each brush held and released paint perfectly, which is what I expect from Kolinsky Sable.

Swapping brush heads feels odd at first, but you get used to it. The spring is a little small, so be sure to change these brush heads over a space where you can keep track of items.

And this is where my one criticism comes into play. These brush heads paint fantastically, but it requires the painter to know the size of the brush head they’re using. And for most painters, I’m doubting you can call out a brush size by bristle alone. I suggest for future variations and productions, Lethal Shadows use a marking system on the bristles. They already use a darker metal to differentiate between Sable and the normal brushes, but I suspect most painters will need a little more.

At the end of the day, I recommend looking into these brushes. I found it pretty easy to use, clean, and store. This will be the only setup I bring for cons or if I'm painting on the go!