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There is a lot of confusion about the difference between a "primer" and a "base coat". A primer is usually a type of paint that promotes the adhesion between the paint layers and the lure. A base coat is just your first layer of paint. In most cases you don't need a "primer" to make paint stick to a plastic, or wood, lure. Before I start to paint a plastic bait I give it a quick dip in clean acetone. Mark told us about this process quite a while ago and it works really well to clean any contaminants from the surface of the bait. And when I say a "quick dip" I mean in and out. And don't try to wipe it dry with a towel or rag. The acetone is hot enough that it will start to soften the surface of the plastic and trying to wipe it dry will only screw up the plastic. It will evaporate in a couple seconds so there is no need to try and hurry that up. If your using acrylic paints such as Createx you are now ready to paint. With the clean, dry surface you'll have after dipping in acetone you don't really need a primer. The paint will bond just fine without it. Most of the time I spray a white base coat so the following colors will be more vibrant. One exception to this is if I'm wanting to do a scale pattern and then I will base coat the bait with whatever color I want the scales to be. Another exception to this is when I want to have a layer of silver paint. Then I will spray a black base coat as the silver paint I'm using stands out more, and is a much brighter silver, when sprayed over a black base coat. One other exception to the white base coat is if your doing a "ghost" pattern. By using transparent colors to paint a bait it will allow a small amount of light to shine through and the colors don't stand out as much as when using opaque paints. This method is what gives you the "ghost" effect. There are lots ways to paint lures, but this is the process I use and it has worked well for me. As far as which top coat to use I will let you do some more reading about that subject as this is the most talked about topic at TU and I could literally spend days typing on my keyboard telling you about different top coats and the pros and cons of them. What you need to do is narrow your choices down to a couple of different top coats and then come back and ask specific questions about them. Personally I'm not the type of person to tell you "do it exactly this way" or "use this top coat". I will however try to give you as much information as I can based on my experiences, and from what I have learned here at TU, about building baits so you can make your own choices. good luck and welcome to TU, Ben

If you switch to the "green" plastic you can always say you're saving the environment.

Mantase, I think that you have a great idea and it seems like this forum would be the place to ask such a question. I just posted because you are referencing larger scale production. The last two times and inquiry was made it was deleted, which I find very unfair. I did run a banner when we first started our business, when I had a need to get my name out there. But a lot of people, including me, have put up links and contact information for different companies and it always seemed to be fine, then suddenly the subject of my company gets deleted. After all, I'm about the only one that does this type of work who is willing to share information and have always stood up for the purity of TU. Anybody that ever contacts me in regard to making baits, if they've never heard of Tackleunderground, I always direct them here. I've never self promoted my services and don't feel that such actions are necessary. If you do good work, you don't have to. Frank, you and Richard both are correct when it comes to the cheerleading part and most of the time these guys get off topic real quick or post solely for the purpose of trying to start an argument. Over the years the long term members have seen companies come and go and a lot of the cheerleading starts with trying to help new companies. Good customer service is advertised by practice better than anything else on the market. And to encourage people to come on a site like TU to endorse a new company without having experienced service from other companies, I feel is wrong especially when you start downing other companies. Everyone with experience here knows that it comes down to personal preference most of the time. It's a shame some people just get so defensive they forget this. And in doing so forget what TU is all about. This is absolutely without a doubt the very best and most informative bait making forum out there at this time. People tend to forget that too.

have you tried my site? I have close to 200 color recipes on there I gathered from around the web.