Painting fine raised detail?

Use a technical pen. I use 00 or even 000 sizes. These are available in various colors which use water based inks or India Inks.

http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/2010/02/14/detailing-pens/

depending on the situation i've had luck with drybrushing some detail as you mentioned.  I'm not sure if this will work in every case but it has before.  You just want to make sure you're building up the color on your detail pieces a little at a time, rather than all at once.  hope it helps!

I have tried detail pens and have had good luck with the darker colors, and I have also drybrushed to great effect.

I was about to say "seen that...................T-shirt", as I often use Rotring steel nibbed Technical pens (0.25 or thereabouts) for small details, they are great for cockpit detailing & filing in recessed detail, but don't work to well on long continuous raised things like fuel lines as they naturally want to slip of the raised detail onto the panel below.

But now I'm thinking that that the detail pens that you all mention are of the fiber tipped variety, which unlike the Rotring actually have an edge to them.............. must give them a try - thanks all!

Any other suggestions or black magic on the subject appreciated.

I use a toothpick, the round sharp edge (double edged) kind.  The way I use it is this- I shake the bottle as one normally would, take off the cap, and lay the cap down upside down on the bench top.  A film of paint will be in the cap, just thick enough to give the right amount onto the end of the toothpick. I dip the toothpick in the paint, then paint with it like a brush.  Because not much paint wicks into the wood, you cannot paint nearly as long of a line as for a fine brush, so you have to re-dip quite frequently.  But toothpicks are cheap and I use them for a lot of things, so I keep a supply handy.  If I get too much paint on the tip I daub it once onto the back of a business card- I always keep a supply of old business cards near my workbench- they are useful for a number of painting and gluing operations, such as dry brushing (daub brush on card to spread some paint on the card then pick up small amount with brush).

Cheers Don!

I wouldn't be without cocktail stick's (what we call them here anyway) & do use them for painting buttons & what not - but hadn't thought about using them side on for this sort of stuff.

It's quite amazing the uses they have (or some people can find for them);

I use a small flat file or sanding stick and lightly run it along the raised detail. Only works if the undercoating is a little darker than the top coat.

The metal file worked best as I used its weight while running it along the detail.

 I used this method on a B-24 that had a dark gray primer and silver top coat.

I saw a video where the painter thinned the paint and dropped it into the recessed areas and the paint flowed into it. I would like to know if it would work with acrylic paint.