ssisal wrote:geeze what size do you guys normally use?
i paint with a /05 for broad strokes and /20 usually.
The size refers to the ferrule (metal part that holds the bristles together), so different sizes between different brands can produce seemingly bigger or smaller brushes. Also, how long the bristles are before they taper, matters a lot as to how the brush feels.
But a 5/0 (which would be the same thing as 00000) or a 20/0 brush by anyone is tiny -- it holds barely any paint. Generally, the reason that I wouldn't use something like a 20/0 is that the only way to get any paint to a model without it drying on the way is to put too much paint onto the brush. A common mistake with tiny brushes is to load a brush, apply it to the model, have no paint transfer, and then load a bigger gob of paint onto the brush. This is actually counterproductive in many ways when you want to paint details -- the first bit of paint has already dried on the bristles, and the second bit is just a ball of paint that's way bigger than the brush.
The proper way to fix that problem is to add something so that the paint doesn't instantly dry when you have a tiny amount on a brush, and to make sure the paintbrush is totally clean, with soft, supple, dry, and paint-free bristles before putting paint onto it.
My favorite sizes of round in Winsor & Newton are 00, 0, and 1. For super detail work like tiny writing and eyes, I will use a Raphael 8404 6/0, or, for detailed scrollwork or long lines, the Citadel Artificer XS brush.
