My "glue" of choice for styrene modelling/scratchbuilding is Dichloromethane (DCM) applied with a small brush from a 10ml glass jar, I know there's supposedly some risk with it, but for 99% of applications, I find it easier to deal with than the pong, blocked nozzles & set times of regular poly glues.
Currently, my two "lucky" DCM brushes are a pair of the cheapest, nastiest, luminous red plastic shafted, anonymous items - they may have come from an Airfix kit a while back (or I may be doing Airfix a great disservice there), but they do behave predictably - e.g. no going floppy & holding very little solvent like every natural bristle brush I've tried, and no turning into a 1:20 hedgehog on a stick after a few uses like the middle of the road artificial bristles (italieri, Heller, Humbrol).
The problem is, they lose a bristle now & then and are becoming less useful as time goes by - but with no way of identifying them, I can' t try to replace them. Has anyone got any suggestions as to what brands/grades to try? I would also consider some sort of applicator, but they'd have to come very highly recommended, as jizzing solvent across the workbench or model is not an option
TIA