For initial painting on bare plaster/polystyrene, household paintbrushes are very useful. Nowadays you can pick up a very cheap set in DIY stores. However if you do DIY it would be just as well to relegate your old brushes to modelling and buy new ones for your next decorating job. The good thing about old brushes is that they have already lost their loose bristles.

Cheap children's paintbrushes will do for small areas where you are just sloshing on the paint.

For most models, brushes with synthetic bristles such as ‘Sablene’ are satisfactory. It really is better to keep separate brushes for both oil and water-based paints. I also keep separate ones for metallic paints. You can clean a brush till the cows come home but as soon as you paint something else, a tiny metallic particle ends up just where you don't want it.

Being also a military modeller, I have always used artist's oils on my figures. For these I would never use anything else than good Kolinsky sable brushes. Expensive yes but looked after, they last a long time.

With all my decent brushes, after a painting session, I apply a small amount of hand cream to the bristles and reshape them to a point. It easily rinses out next time you use them. This not only keeps them in shape but with natural bristles, it prevents the natural oils being dried out by white spirit or washing up liquid.

A lot of the woodwork on my models is pre-coloured with wood stain before assembly. ( It doesn't cover glue spots very well). For applying this, try using cotton buds. They do the job well and you've no cleaning afterwards.

With weathering powders I have found nothing better than ‘blusher brushes’, made for applying make-up. Again pre-used ones are good as the loose hairs have already fallen out. Encourage the ladies in your life to purchase new brushes and scrounge their old ones.