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That is a darn fine paint job! As to a soft tail, you might be able to embed some ss wire in the tail end of the bait (think of the body-loc jigs) and attach a tail that way. I would think a big shad tail, large curl tail (6" or so), or even part of a jumbo slug-go/fluke type bait would work.

Skeeter, thanks for the positives on the paint jobs. Just seems like my triggers are sticking a bit. Have soaked in createx restorer, brush scrubbed, not much change in function. Seems to happen more when I am shooting colors that are thinned out with extender, esp Auto Air. ???

How could we give up a weekend of painting/pouring/melting/bending/etc...? Good planning missing MO deer season and spoon fishing at T-Rock. Should be a good time!

just curious if anyone has tried the airbrush lube from badger or iwata? preferences? supposed to improve flow, reduce sticking.

Have tried a couple of RTV's, including a 1:1 mix. Best one I have found is the one Lurecraft is selling...mixes well, cures well, holds up well, price is not terrible. Don't get to confused on mixing, mostly 10:1. Just get an oral syringe from a pharmacy (kid's dose syringe), will give plenty of accuracy for drawing up the catalyst. Can measure the RTV base in pyrex with good accuracy. I have used RTV and hardener with, and without color (the blue stuff). I think it is a little easier to mix and make correctly with the color additive, lets you know when your mix is well blended. The clay I have the best results with is Van Aken Modeling Clay (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc). It never hardens, shapes well, and is heavy enough to hold well to the botom of the mold container. Listed specifically on the packaging as compatible with silicone mold compounds. No mold release necessary. It is the clay I used to proto the drop shot baits I have posted in the gallery...went from proto straight to the first RTV mold. www.vanaken.com Hope it helps.

Couple of ways with the Paasche brush (milennium, or VL)... Thicken up the paint and dial down the pressure using your regulator. This tends to cause splatter, just as increasing psi and thinning paint eliminates it. You can also get splatter by increasing psi, and using sort of a "burst" technique with the trigger. Spray a little paint thru the brush as you normally would. Then fully depress the trigger, pull back to release paint, and release the trigger...has to be done as basically a single step, thus the "burst". If done correctly you should get a splatter of paint, similar to the splatter effect on bandit and norman cranks...takes some practice. It is an "aggressive" painting technique. Works best for me at about 40psi (not hard and fast) with a fairly thick createx paint. Splatterbacks seem to be pretty popular right now. Not sure they are that much different than a nicely applied finish with accents and flake, but they probably do get a similar effect with less steps/time/$. Hope it helps.

RTV should give more detail, should be easier to remove the cooled bait. Plastic/Resin works well enough for some applications...also cheaper to make. Both are better than plaster.

Thanks.

stabilizer and temp adjustment will take care of it. on the lighter colors always use stabilizer, and try to run thru the plastic as fast as possible...longer heating increases the chance of them changing color on you.

Rod supply shops...Mudhole, Bingham's, etc. Be careful with the larger sizes as they will tend to crystalize if you do not go thru them quickly.

...from the email I sent & you replied to earlier this week about re-painting old balsa b's: Do you suggest wet sanding? Concerned about getting water into the grain by doing that. Really enjoy your "miscellaneous baits" section on the site BTW. Thanks, Dave Reeves.

some very festive baits...should be good in lakes with a bluegill forage base. keep it up!

I would try stripping/sanding your base coat, then let the wood breathe a bit. After a couple of weeks (?-less/more depending) I would seal it with a minwax urethane type sealer...about 2 coats. Let that dry several days then flexcoat it. Once the FC cures you should have a fair idea of how it will turn out. The FC should fill some of the rough spots, and if the bait is good and dry before sealing it should not split. Water is the enemy.

All that needs is a nice May or June morning.

Length appx 2 & 3/4" Width appx 1/2" (slightly smaller than the 1/2" balsa stock) Might take them to work tomorrow and weight them on the Rx balance to check weight. Would guess around 1/2 to 3/4oz, w/o hooks...a very solid bait.

Finally. Baits are about the dimensions of a balsa b2, only flat sided.

As thin as the original mold. handpour plastic is so soft that a really thin tail is not necessary for good action...actually more of a problem as it will tend to tangle and tear on the jig hook. Real pain at 55'.

Ok, so it only took me a 10 months or so to post pics of my mother molds. The RTV grub mold was made about 2 days ago using the mother and Lure Craft RTV. When using a mother almost no trimming of the silicone mold is required. You also have the opportunity to trim some dead areas from the RTV mold you use to make your mother, reducing the volume of RTV required to mold = $$$. Trying to post a link to my previous post on these. If it does not work out maybe Red can lend a hand with that. http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=112&highlight=mother Hope it helps. Feel free to email Q's.

The larew thing ended up being more or less of a p*ssing contest. I wasn't technically injecting salt (sprinkling) so they could not do much. What torqued them off was a distributor of mine had put some baits in a shop at Lake Fork. These were zippers, back when they were first hot, and Larew didn't have one.

Chris, Reminds me of the letter I received from Gene Larew back during the great salt witch hunts. Hang in there bro. I still have my letter. A lot of folks think it is pretty cool that a "little guy" could p**s of a major corporation that way.

You can use pencils erasers. Buy some cheap wooden #2's and use sand paper to size the erasers for the various dots you want. just wrap the paper around the eraser and spin the pencil a few times. Quick, cheap, easy,and it works!

Thank you...you are not going crazy.

nicely done!

Skeeter...I'm with you, can't imagine the disaster of shooting devcon But...what would happen if you tried to shoot the thnned epoxy, or maybe something like flexcoat with an external mix brush? Something like a cheap Testors, where gummed up internal needles and such would not be a problem. Just a thought. there are also some larger "sprayers" from Paasche and similar made for thicker materials. Think they are mostly a big ext mix brush. ***This does not mean I am going to try it.

Think you should be able to get close with a med smoke color (provided by black color) and one of the blue hi-lite powders. Use a similar color in some of my drop shot baits and swim grubs.