Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 Brush Review for Miniature Painters

The Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 is a small set of 4 Kolinsky Sable brushes. All of them have a sharp point and are of a size only suitable for painting tiny areas or details. These are more of a complementary set to your main set of brushes.

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The Best Brushes for Miniatures & Models

This article is part of our series looking at the Best Brushes for Miniatures & Wargames Models.

If you want to check out what the best brushes are for your projects, please check out our Best Brushes for Miniatures article by clicking the image above.

Each of the brushes are tiny handled and much shorter than a regular brush. This makes them suitable for fine details. The handle is also wider and easier to grip.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 Review – Summary

The Da Vinci Micro Maestro brushes are well shaped and have an excellent needle like point. I shall look at the performance of each of the brushes in this set. These brushes might just be the perfect addition to your collection.

Each brush has a short polished black handle and are made from Kolinsky Red Sable hairs. Da Vinci are offering a high quality detail brush, complete with a short, easy to grip handle.

These brushes have helped me to add the extra detail needed to take my miniature painting to the next level.

In this set of 4 brushes, I found that the smallest two were very difficult to use. I struggled to get even layers of paint with them and there are a few issues with splaying and movement. However, the larger brushes in this set performed exceptionally.

Da Vinci – The Company

Da Vinci are a brush manufacturer based in Nürnberg, Germany – see the small grey lettering on the handles of the brushes. They produce 4 different types of brushes to fit the versatile needs of their customers. In this review I’m focusing on Artist brushes, but Da Vinci also produce Cosmetic, Nail and Dental brushes.

As a company, Da Vinci has many years of experience with manufacturing high quality artist brushes. The combination of quality materials and traditional craftmanship creates finely tuned products. Da Vinci strives to meet the needs of their customers by providing quality tools.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 Brush Set Overview and Design

The Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 brushes come in 4 sizes. They are designed for table-top and micro painting. They range from size #5/0 to #20/0. From first impressions, they seem like they would be good for fine details and highlights.

All of them are made from high quality Siberian Kolinsky Red Sable hairs. They have an easy to grip polished black handle which is shaped to prevent rolling. They are completed with a sliver band at the base of the (also silver) ferrule. This makes it quick and easy to locate these brushes amongst others.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – Brush tests

To showcase each of the brushes’ general performance I have done a series of tests. These aim to expose any potential issues with the brushes such as splaying, uneven pigment distribution, etc… I will explain further in each individual section.

For the tests I used Vallejo Model Colour Brown Sand.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – #5/0

This brush is my favourite in this set and produces brilliant results. It was the only brush which didn’t splay at all. #5/0 also has a fine point and is good for painting details or tiny areas of a model.

Some of the unevenness of the brush strokes are due to the thick acrylic paint.

I am very impressed by its performance in the tests. The loops at the top show an even distribution of pigment and a great level of control. The brush has excellent movement and refrained from splaying. After being pushed down (splayed), it quickly snapped back into its original shape.

Pigment in the washes was evenly distributed and the brush also creates very thin lines.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – #10/0

#10/0 is slightly smaller than #5/0 and has a very fine point. Again, this brush is really only suitable for painting details.

As the size of the brushes became smaller, it was harder to perform all of the tests. Each brush can only hold a small amount of paint.

Unfortunately, I found that this brush performed poorly. During painting, it splayed a lot. It really struggled with the tight loops. The spread of pigment in the washes is uneven. On a positive note, it did return to its original shape after being pressed down.

While painting an actual model, I found that none of the above was really an issue. The paint went on smoothly and gave the desired effect.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – #15/0

#15/0 is excellently shaped and has an incredibly sharp point.

While painting models, I found this brush to be too small to produce even layers of paint. So I opted to use #10/0 instead.

Size #15/0 performed well in the tests. The main problem I found with this brush is that as it reached the top of the loops, it splayed. Other than that, it returned to its original shape after being splayed and evenly distributed pigment.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – #20/0

This is the smallest brush in the set and has a good sharp point. Although, #15/0 is slightly better shaped.

Due to its small size, it was rather difficult to use on minis. There wasn’t enough body to the brush to create even layers of paint. So, like #15/0, I opted to use one of the larger brushes in the set.

It was very difficult to perform the tests with this tiny brush. It maintained its shape and can produce very thin lines. Sometimes the brush splayed while painting the small loops, but this is only a minor issue.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – Mini Painting

For this review I have chosen to paint a couple of very different models. The brushes performed very well and have added a new dynamic to my painting.

The ‘Before’ image shows the model with only its base layers – I used the Da Vinci Maestro Series 10 brushes for this. The ‘After’ image shows the same model with added shading and highlights. For this I only used the Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 brushes.

For the above comparison I painted a Namarti Reaver model. I mainly used brushes #5/0 and #10/0 as the others were to small. The Micro Maestro brushes gave excellent control over shading and highlights. They are really nice brushes to work with.

The above model is a Skeleton Warrior. I went with a more ancient bone theme and slowly built up the highlights. I’m really happy with how the bone looks and the brushes performed well.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – Will they improve my hobby?

Alongside a main set of hobby brushes, this shorter handled set of 4 will add the small size to be able to paint the finest of details. These brushes would also be good for small freehand painting. They have allowed me to take my painting skills further and add much more detail than before. So, these brushes will improve your hobby.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – Availability

The Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 brushes are widely available in the UK, US and Europe.

Da Vinci Micro Maestro Series 100 – Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Overall, the Da Vinci Micro Maestro brushes are a nice addition to any set of hobby brushes and will make painting fine details a little bit easier. They are short handled, maintain their shape, have good control and a sharp point. These brushes are well suited for painting details and highlights.

The Micro Maestro brushes have allowed me to take my painting a step further, bringing dramatic shading and highlights.

There are some imperfections with theses brushes. The larger brushes (#5/0 and #10/0) in this set perform the best when used on a model. The other two smaller brushes (#15/0 and #20/0) splayed a lot and were simply too small to build up smooth layers of paint over an area of a mini. None of the brushes held much paint due to their size.

However, they are still a worthy addition to your brush collection.

Da Vinci Provided these brushes free of charge for a review

Please Note: This site uses affiliate links. Our Affiliate Partners are shown below
(Affiliate links will result in compensation to the site on qualifying purchases)

Click this link & buy your hobby stuff from Element Games for the UK & Europe to support FauxHammer.com – Use Code “FAUX2768” at the checkout for double reward points.

Our Affiliates / Hobby Stores

• UK: Element Games, The Outpost, Wayland Games, Mighty Lancer, Goblin Gaming, Forbidden Planet, Model Scenery Supplies, eBay, Amazon
• US/Canada: MTechCave, GameKastle, eBay (US), eBay (CA), Amazon
• Germany: Taschengelddieb
• Europe: eBay (DE), eBay (FR), eBay (ES), eBay (IT), Amazon
• Australia: eBay, Amazon
• Global: RedGrass Games, Warcolours

• 3D Printers: Phrozen 3D, Elegoo, Anycubic

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