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I don't think the color of the jig head...makes any more difference than the color of the soft plastic bait.... That's coming from a guy that just had to buy a new boat...to tow behind my current boat...to put all the tackle boxes of different color plastic baits in!

Oc, I'll answer some of the questions and others will chime in. #1 As far as I'm concerned, powder paint is the best of both worlds. It's durabilty is outstanding and you can apply multiple colors to a jig once you practice for awhile. I use many different manufacturers of powder paint, and have never found one that is not durable, providing you bake your jigs. There is no such thing as best. Many guys use Pro-tec, although it is good paint it is in my opinion very expensive. I won't pay $20/lb when I can get it for $7, unless it is an exotic powder or custom made for me. I have done a lot of study and triall and error on powder paints, and unless you buy some stuff that has been mis-handled they all are good. So I go to the alternative powders. Once you get to learn how to use them they all work fine and are durable. #2 Non-fishing powder paint. I'm assuming you are referring to brands that are not elaborate and don't say made for jigs. All these powders are fine and can be used for painting jigs. #3 When you mix two colors of powder paint, you will not get a true color. So lets say you mix blue and yellow. The pure color would be green. However when powder paint is made the colors are made in the blend. So when you mix it yourself, you will get a shade of green, however it will not be pure but a blend. This is not like mixing house paint in the liquid form. #4 I do not use it and I personally don't think it is worth the money. I can powder paint anything in the world with the powder paint I have and I think my jigs look pretty good. The key is to learn how to use powder paint to your fullest potential. Learn how to blend, shade, heat, reheat and everything else. Powder paint is just that powder paint. It is a tool, how you use it to create your masterpieces is up to you. Take a look at my avatar, that spinnerbait was done with powder paint. #5 I can't help you with this as I don't do this process.

The numbers such as 3lb, 10lb, etc. indicate how much a cubic foot weighs which is a measure of its density. The lower the density the more expansion occurs (allowing it to capture more air when it cures). This material shows good promise in terms of its density when trying to mimic light weight woods as well the strength is very impressive and increases with higher densities such as the 16lb and 25lb. So why aren't more folks using this stuff? It is much more difficult to pull off clean castings using silicone molds due to the expansion. Even with large vents in your mold the pressure it exerts even when compensating for the expansion is troublesome-it is very difficult to avoid distortions and material pushing into the mold half parting lines and seperating the halves. Has the headache started yet?. Also the finished casting seems to have more voids and defects than urethane and at the least will require quite a bit more clean up such as filler to prep it for paint. Which brings yet another issue. Getting paint to adhere to it is much more difficult as well. There are methods of pre-priming the molds that I was only able to get a fair result from. To sum up my experience. If your super motivated to use this material you had better be prepared to invest some serious time and effort to master it as it is much different than working with urethane resin. It certainly can be done but you have to basically make a study of how to deal with the expansion, achieving a nice skin to minimize paint prep, and getting good paint adhesion. If your making simple designs like big spooks or ms slammer type wake baits it might be fine. If your attempting more detailed casting with scales, fins, etcs...its going to be much more challenging to deal with. Also, the expansion is affected by things like temperature and humidity so keeping your densities consistent might not be as predictable as the number on the label. Personally, with all the additional issues over urethane resins I opted to look at other ways to make the urethane resin lighter where need be. Larger swimbaits in general don't often perform optimally with the densities of light woods such as basswood or cedar. If your looking for more buoyancy you don't necessarily need a lighter material you might instead add more volume to your design (make it fatter). In other words, instead of fighting your material...re-engineer the shape to work with the material your using. Urethane resin is a DREAM to work with next to urethane foam but if your super motivated you could possibly discover new ways of taming the beast that others haven't. Good luck. J

I bet if you built a little mouse harness and floated one out there, you would get a slob!