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I've built and painted a lot of lures now, and the "new" has kind of worn off of painting for me. At first, it was the only way I knew to get a finish on a lure, back when I used rattle cans. When I started airbrushing, it was fun to learn different skills, like finding new and unique paint schemes, and scaling schemes. Finally, it turned into a necessity. When I built walking lures and jointed swimbaits in batches of six, for sale, I need a way of making "identical" finishes on lure quickly and repeatability. Airbrushing was the answer. And I got into the search for the "perfect" sealer and topcoat. Along the way I discovered that making lures for sale took away the fun for me, and that I'd rather fish than paint. I have turned to PVC for building, eliminating the need to seal wood, to prime, and to have a bullet proof topcoat. And I've turned to nail polish for my painting where I can. So, on my PVC cranks and on plastic knockoffs, I've begun doing the entire paint scheme with nail polishes. The color combinations are endless, I mix two different colors to get a color I can't buy, and they even sell a clear with glitter. If I want a glitter that's not available, I just add soft plastic glitter to clear polish to make that color glitter. And I use clear polish to lock on the self-adhesive 3D eyes. The polish holds up great, and it quick. No additional top coat needed. Paint one day, fish the next. With the clear plastic knockoffs from Predator Bass and Bustin Bass, I am also able to get transparent finishes, and the nail polish brush allows me to add a mottled appearance that looks great from below in clear water. Layering is just a matter of letting one coat dry, and then adding another. The buildup of color is fast and easy. And the colors don't fade. Again, I'm a hobbiest, not a production builder, and got into lure building only to replace a buddy's Pupfish that I broke, so my experience is from that perspective. But cheap nail polish makes lure painting fast and easy, so I wanted to share my experiences with it here. The fish in my avatar, 8.37lbs, came on a PVC popper I made and finished with nail polish. The fish didn't care.

Good advice. Same goes for bassman2169. I wouldn't worry about hardner/softner to get started. The medium plastic from any of the suppliers should get you in the ballpark. After you settle on a brand and gain a little experience you can adjust from there. Doesn't hurt to add a little stabilizer especially on remelts. It's not absoloutely necessary though.Especially with small batches that won't be kept hot very long. Heat your plastisol slowly and be careful not to overheat.Patience pays off in the end result. I'm sure some people will disagree but,I think a hotplate/pouring pot or presto pot makes it much easier to control temps/heating rate than a microwave. Take your time and read all you can stand to read here and you'll do fine. The search engine is your friend!!! Welcome aboard and good luck,Tim.

D2T doesn't "dry" - it cures, so recoating doesn't affect hardening of the first coat. It's usually 'finger proof' after about 5 hrs, so I agree with BBM. I read about epoxy tests on rod guides that said a microscopic exam of double coated guides could find no evidence of a line separating the first and second coat, indicating that the two coats were fully integrated into a single mass as long as the recoating was done within 24-36 hrs. From that, I would say that there's no need to scuff or sand recently applied epoxy before you apply a second coat.