About 3 or 4 months ago I started painting figures again. Specially the Patriots – Venezuelans and Colombians – for the War in the North during the South American Wars of Liberation. It has been years since I painted a whole army myself and looking at my brushes I realised I needed to upgrade. The best brushes are made from red sable, e.g. kolinsky sable, so I went looking and found Rosemary & Co.
Note: I’m painting 15mm wargaming figures using the Black Undercoat Method of painting.
Rosemary & Co – SERIES 33. KOLINSKY SABLE POINTED ROUNDS
After a quick search I found Rosemary & Co – SERIES 33. KOLINSKY SABLE POINTED ROUNDS. Despite being “oil” brushes they work fine for acrylics. “Round” means they have a pointed tip with long closely arranged bristles, ideal for detail. The smaller brushes in the range are good for painting miniatures.
| Brush Size | Head Diameter (mm) | Head Length (mm) |
| 10/0 | 0.8 | 6.4 |
| 3/0 | 1 | 7.8 |
| 2/0 | 1.4 | 8.6 |
| 0 | 1.5 | 9.8 |
| 1 | 1.7 | 11.8 |
| 2 | 2 | 14.1 |
| 3 | 2.3 | 15.1 |
| 4 | 3.4 | 15.7 |
I have all the brushes from size 10/0 to size 4. My brushes are all 7″ long.
In the past I felt I had to use tiny brushes. My smallest had a single hair. With my new brushes I’m trying to apply to the principle of using the biggest brush I can. This ensures the paint stays wet and gives better coverage.
After 4 months I find I use only four of my new brushes:
- Size 2 for huge areas like horses.
- Size 0 for big areas like uniforms. I use this for the base colour and eventually found it is good for the highlight colour as well.
- Size 2/0 smaller items like spears, pouches and sword sheaths
- Size 10/0 for the fine detail e.g. faces, trim on cuffs, the bands of metal on musket barrels, etc.
What I used before
Before this I used Premier P32 Brushes. These are also red sable but have a unique triangular handle (which also happens to be red). I liked the triangular handles.
I have was using these three (this was before I discovered bigger brushes work better):
Premier P32 Brush Size 5/0
Premier P32 Brush Size 2/0
Premier P32 Brush Size 0
I stopped using them because I now find them very difficult to source in the UK. Although recently I bumped into: Premier Brushes UK.
| Brush Size | Head Length (mm) | Head Width (mm) |
| 5/0 | 3.5 | 1 |
| 4/0 | 4.5 | 1 |
| 3/0 | 5.5 | 1.3 |
| 2/0 | 6 | 1.3 |
| 0 | 7 | 1.5 |
| 1 | 8 | 1.8 |
| 2 | 10 | 2 |
| 3 | 12.5 | 2.5 |
| 4 | 15 | 3 |
What I’ll try next
I purchased my Rosemary & Co brushes before I realised they had a dedicated set for miniatures painters: SERIES 363. KOLINSKY SABLE MINATURE. These are appealing because they have shorter tips.