Hughesy

AlamOso, Personally, I don't like to coat the lips because they take most of the abuse and when this happens it give the clear coat a place to start peeling or chipping. I end my clear coat right at the lip and enough gets on the edge to seal around it.

I'd put 4 on them. Gammies are usually a little lighter than most.

Tom, Just do a search on the air brush and supplies question. There are tons of post on which airbrush people use. As far as getting the bait ready to paint, you can probably get away with painting over the old paint job if its not damaged or the clear coat isn't to thick. I would do some sanding on it. If you want the bait to be the exact weight as new, than you will have to strip them.

clemmy First of all let me thank you for the nice compliments. As far as my "create your own colors page", I did try using my own colors but they didn't look right because of places like where the back color faded into the side of the baits looked real funky, the color of the paint behind the scale pattern would show up and many other issues I came across. It was a real pain. I just put that page on there for the fun of it. I doubt if anyone uses it to really design colors all though I have received many orders with the little pictures as a sample. I might change it around if I every get time to play around with it. As far as it increasing my orders, its killing me the way it is now. We are running about 5 to 6 weeks on deliveries of orders as we speak with no end in sight. On patenting colors schemes, I don't think its possible because you could add 2 drops of white to any color and barely change the color but I'm sure in a court of law it would be considered a new color even though it matches your to a T. If you notice that most of the Big Boys that copy my stuff do not get the colors right. Lucky Crafts Table Rock Shad is a real faded chartreuse and almost a flat purple, Normans Sour Grape has purple flake and the they to can't get the right purple and chartreuse. The same with Pradco's Mark Menendez line. All of those colors are a copies of mine but they just can't get the colors tint right. Plus the quality of their work could use some help. Thanks again clemmy for the great ideas but I'm just gonna stay right where I'm at and just keep on shootin that paint.

Depends. What kind of look you are going for? What type of foil are you using? Most of the tin foil guys wrap the whole bait. I use some holographic foil where I just do the sides like on a Fat Free Shad style. Its just depends on the look you want.

You want to watch putting the weight too far back because the lure will set in the water with the tail down. Sometimes, this will make the lure blow out of the water because the bill will be parallel with the surface of the water.

I doubt if your water based clear is going to work as good as the other epoxy clear coats work. The water base clear will be a very coat compared to the epoxies. But even not knowing about the water based clear, I would venture to say that the epoxies would probably be more durable also. I'll let you read all of the posts on Devcon, Flex Coat and Envirotex. Just do a search on them and you will find many posts to read. Then you can decide which is best for you.

I use regular acrylic paint bought at Wal-Mart pretty often. Sometime its easier to buy a particular color than mixing one to match a color. Haven't had any problems with other than what you normally have with water base stuff.

Lucky Craft no longer sells them in the U.S. Don't ask me why!

I'll see if he wants to do some more and what he will charge. He just kinda did the first couple sheets to see if he could even do it.

I've got a buddy who is in the vinyl sign biz and I asked him if he could make some holographic scales with his vinyl cutting machine. He said it is difficult to cut things that small but he did it and they are awesome. They come on a sheet and you just cut out a piece the shape of the lures, stick them on and then peel off the backing.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Lets all take time to remember that Christmas is about the birth of our lord Jesus. This art, that we all are so involved in, is also a brotherhood. Since this site was started, that brotherhood has grown in many ways. I just wanted to take this time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We are all clay in the Potter's hand.

Tally, There are no boundaries on colors or design. Sometimes the uglier the better. When I first painted a purple and chartreuse (Table Rock Shad) some 15 years ago, I had no idea that it would win so much money and then be copied by every major manufacturer there is. What is ugly to you may not be ugly to the fish. I thought it was a very ugly color combo and still do. Catch a few 7 pounders on that ugly lure and see how pretty it becomes to everyone else. Use your imagination which has no limits. Don't be afraid of ugly!

I know the old Bagley's Balsa Baits had no sealer on them. The had a very, and I mean very thick coat of some kind of white paint or primer. It was so thick it would hide any wood grain. Sanded like chalk.

You can any kind of marker. What I do is shoot a very light coat of clear water base sealer over the signature only. Then it will not run or smear when the clear coat is applied.

Dick Nite's paints are also excellent for the phantom look!

Tally Very nice and clean. I love the eye. Skeeter and I remember when Coley posted his first. Now he's teaching others (and does a good job giving them good information too I might add). Keep at it and you'll be giving me and Skeet tips.

And its boring as hell tooo!!!!!!!!

Very, very nice work!!!!!!! Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

You might try dipping a Q tip in some MEK or acetone and just rub it across the edge. If it is not too rough, it will smooth the marks away.

Old Skeet is dead on again. Everything he said is text book. Nice job on this post Skeeter. robertjp, if you can rig some ventilation, nothing shoots like lacquer. If you can't us lacquer, then Skeeter's post tells you your options. I might of missed it somewhere but, did you every say how many coats of Devcon you used?

Thanks Chip, Thanks for the comment and the direction to the website. I appreciate it!

Stencils are the only way to go on stuff like stripes and dots!

On muskie baits I would use at least 2 coats of devcon. If it doesn't effect the action, 3 coats would be the ultimate protection. I use 3 coats on muskie baits but my clear coat isn't as thick as devcon. Try 2 and see how it works for ya.

On wooden baits I just sand it off with a dremel drum sander. On plastic baits I use a small sand blaster.