"Painting British flank company wings?" Topic

How do you paint flank company shoulder wings well ?
I managed to sort of dry brush one by mistake, that looks great but I can't seem to repeat it.
Normally I paint the whole thing white and do 4 red lines on it, it looks ok, but not great. I'm doing a guards regiment with blue wings and they look a bit rubbish using that method. I tried painting the middle bit blue and doing white lines, which is also 'ok' but then I sort of dragged the brush across on one and like drybrushing, it found all the high bits and looked great. But every time I've tried to repeat it I get a mess.

Is there a secret ?
Or does it rely on talent ?
(I'm hoping for the first)

I paint Prussian musician wings, similar?

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I paint white, then with a Windsor and Newton OOO brush carefully paint the lines, basically ignoring the sculpted lines on the wing.

Talent for painting is involved, but how hard it is depends on the figure scale and the amount of raised detail provided by a particular manufacturer, as well as having a first-class brush. Never try to skimp on the cost of a brush, but even then you can't rely on any two from the same maker working equally well.

Here's one trick I use sometimes for really fine detail. Since a really fine brush won't carry very much paint anyway, and the flex of the bristles can be unpredictable, a toothpick can be very helpful. I shave one down to a very fine point with a sharp X-acto knife, giving it a gradual angle to the point. This leaves it with a little flex, but less than a brush. They don't last long, but that's not a big deal, since they're dead cheap.

Oh, man! I haven't done the toothpick thing in almost 50 years! I didn't know anyone else ever did it.

Happy, I think both the "secrets" work, but if the winds are clearly visible on the unpainted casting, your drybrush technique should be fine. It doesn't take talent, or I'd be out of business, but it does take practice.The best people you know at anything may have had talent. It's sometimes hard to measure. But I'll about guarantee they practiced more.

Ok thanks. Thought I was missing a trick, but I'll go back to doing it by hand.

@Wrgm1 yeah that's the sort of thing I've been doing, only just not as neat.
Incidentally did you just paint your prussians grey? And not even worry about the dark blue thing ? I've got smurf prussians, but I'm not sure what else to do to make them different from french. Prussian dark grey would certainly be easier and still distinguish them?

Not to steal Wrgmr1's thunder, but those figures are Landwehr, and some of the Landwehr did wear gray coats.

I paint the white then go over it with a micro pen in the color needed. The pen is much easier to control than a brush. Only problem is they have still yet to make a good colored white pen.

attilathpun47 is partially correct, these are Prussian Reserve infantry, while not Landwher, they are not regulars either. From 1813 to 1815, the Prussians had 12 regiments of line in blue jackets and 12 regiments of reserve in grey.
The reserve had shorter jackets with no tails, also the small round cap with a peak and canvas backpacks. You will see some of these figures have shakos and regular backpacks as they were given to the troops as the old ones wore out. The Landwehr infantry wore a dark Blue Litewka, which was a long coat. Some Landwehr wore grey such as this Landwher Cavalry.

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Blue jacket line troops.
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I forgot to mention in addition to a very good brush, I use 3.0 reading glasses now which has improved my painting considerably. This is a command stand.

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Practice, a good brush and 3.0 readers seems to work for me.