Custom painting lures

[Guest]

Tackleunderground is a good place to search keywords.

I've been tinkering with Plasti Dip & solarez to achieve a matte finish on the crawdad colors.

If that doesnt work, Im going to sun bake them.

[dtrs5kprs]

Couple of notes...

100% yes on a good respirator. The particles are very hard on you without one.

Flex coat high build works fine as a finish, but you can't use a single coat. I have cleared with it for years, but use it in a multi coat process. Because of its light weight you can clear after major color additions (as in after finishing bellies, sides, and backs), before moving on to detailing. This let's you wipe out mistakes without ruining your base colors, gives you the ability to layer colors with added depth, and is more durable.

At a guess, my baits have a minimum of three, and more likely four to six layers of clear built up in the finish when using Flex Coat. There are pics of some drifting around the Table Rock forum.

Everything else is trial and error, hopefully with some valuable advice along the way. There will be lots of error.

[dtrs5kprs]

And after painting hundreds of warts and sticks I came to the conclusion it does not matter much in cranks, more so in sticks. The cranks look pretty, and there is a sense of accomplishment, but they are grinding along too fast, and through too much cover for it to matter.

The added weight of a custom paint job does matter. It will let you get a crank a little deeper than a stock bait.

Sticks are a different deal. Color is a lot bigger when they can eyeball the bait for thirty seconds.

[Guest]

clear coating the painted bill wiggle warts is tricky, too much & it fills in the cupped surface leaving the line tie filled with epoxy.

I battle this problem with a toothpick shoved thru the line tie as its on the drying wheel. gotta move fast though

[Kee sims]

Wow! Thank you guys a ton for the advice. I'm trying to absorb as much as possible. Lol if anything else come to mind would love to hear it. And would love to see pics of you guys have any. I enjoy seeing people ideas and creativity side. The good the bad and the ugly! Hopefully I'll have a setup this weekend. I'll be sure to post pics of my first(failure) batch. Haha

[5bites]

One thing I'd like to add, and it comes more from the rod building I've done rather than the short time I've been painting. If you have a method that works for you and it differs from others ways of doing things there's nothing wrong with that if the results are good. Different types of finish is a perfect example. Some people for whatever reason do not get along with brand "A" finish but love brand "B" and has never had a problem. The next guy hates brand "B". It just varies person to person so it pays to experiment to a point with different brands but don't dismiss one brand as bad. It just isn't for you.

Like was mentioned above tackleunderground.com is a great resource for information. Bassboatcentral.com has some too. Some.

[Guest]

This was supposed to be V208 red craw, instead it turned out to be more like V86 Missouri craw.

Either way, it should catch fish in stained to muddy water.

[5bites]

This was supposed to be V208 red craw, instead it turned out to be more like V86 Missouri craw.

Either way, it should catch fish in stained to muddy water.

Absolutely! I like that. It's like a cross between the two.

I kinda wish there was a sticky somewhere that lure tinkerers and rod builders could put up pics so that they can all be viewed in one spot.

[5bites]

Maybe even put recipes below the pics if the painter was inclined.

[Flysmallie]

Does anyone know of any good places in Springfield that sells decent airbrushes or airbrush sets

Iwata is the brand to get if you can afford it. They have it together. Badger's not bad. I have a couple of those. Hobby Lobby has some, National Art Shop has Iwata, Badger and Paasche, another good brand. You can also try O'Reilly Auto Parts. The one at Chestnut and Glenstone would probably be the best option. They should be able to get a Vaper that is a knock off of the Iwata. It's a really good copy.

Air supply is all going to depend on how much you want to use it. Tons of good small airbrush compressors out there. You pay more for less noise. They can be quite annoying if they run all the time. At least to me they are. I like to have enough air storage so the compressor doesn't run continuously.

Good information on a respirator. You shouldn't be spraying anything without a respirator. But ventilation is just as important. If you have little air movement then you are causing a lot of other problems. And keep your respirator sealed up when not in use. Most of the ones that have chemical cartridges have an exposure limit around 40 hours. After that and it starts loosing it's power. That all depends on your spraying condition and air movement. But keeping it sealed up when not in use and keeping the air moving will prolong it's life. They do not work forever.

I'm not sure you want to go down my particular path of coatings. I use automotive finishes only. It's what I know the best and is probably way overkill for a bait but it sure does work good. It's a big initial investment but it goes a long ways. I can make any color I want. I can change the gloss level any time I want. It dries very fast. I don't have to wait 24 hours for the clear to cure. It's extremely durable. And it has UV protection. Which is more important that being UV stable. UV stable means that UV rays will not destroy it. UV protection means that it stops UV rays from entering. That protects the basecoat underneath which has no way of protecting itself from the UV rays.

Automotive coatings are also very thin when applied. If you are having a problem with the method you are using filling in parts of the bait then auto coatings might be worth a look.

And like 5bites said, find what works for you and stick with it.