KcDano

On occasion I have used artist oils thinned with lacquer thinner some worked better than others. Solvent based clearcoats such as Urethane and lacquer might present some problems they tend to reflow the artist oils below, particularly clear lacquer. That being said, I once owned some handmade plugs that were crafted by a taxidermist during the early part of the last century. Which appeared to be painted with canvas oils. The finish was as close to a realistic rendering as anything I have seen here or elsewhere. I believe the only way to make a plug look more realistic would be a photo finish. The most of it looked to be done by rubbing colors on and the details done with liner brush or the likes of. Good Luck! Keep us Posted!

I have heard adding camphor in small amounts to alkyd enamel prior to spraying will keep the bugs away. Never tried it, could be B.S.

Nice!

Yes, Nathan had mentioned what a wonderful experience it would be to have whole Tu meet group sing: Happy Birthday to You.

Was it red that bled through?

Yes I have used kilz on occasion it worked for me(oil base), although a shot of automotive lacquer primer I consider a better option. You might also consider dusting a few light coats on to avoid saturating the finish below with solvent.

Happy B-Day Nathan!

Me and Butch Backlash were fishin' a hole near Taterville once and saw that thing you call swamp ogar swimmin' around. We called Critter From The Bass Lagoon Fine Looking Bait!

HaHa!

Seems that we might know someone real close, just down the road a piece. I bet he does have it down to a science, most likely one of the many reasons another buisness bought his!

I understand that you can build a coating up by employing that method, I think the real trick would be arriving at the proper amount of sealer to add. I still have my doubts about actually smoothing the lure and sealing at the same time. However, since Mavrick has done this procedure perhaps he will come back and enlighten us some more.

Polishing rocks you say! That is the same thing as tumbling with a meduim. It seems to me that if the bodies are removing material by abraiding against each other and absorbing sealer with the removed material held in suspension that the finish would be full of balsa dust. And what keeps them from sticking together as it dries. Not questioning veracity of the method, just would like to hear more about the operation

Just about all the major lure companies of the past dipped baits in white enamel and performed all the drilling and cutting after primer, painting and clearcoat. As you are most likely aware that dipping a lure with pre-drilled hole and cuts presents numerous problems. Fills the holes, runs out unevenly around a hole or cut out and requires extra effort to clean out prior to hardware and lip installation. What really baffles me is the dumping of sanding sealer in a tumbler, I have never heard of that procedure. They did however, use tumbling with a medium to further finish the bait prior to dipping in sealer, primer or whatever. That for sure is a new one to me. It seems to me the sealer and plugs would become one lump as the sealer dried. However, with out seeing the equipment I can't say for sure, may have been some type of centrifugal operation to quickly seal the baits. Or he might have been using a old sealer can to throw the meduim in the tumbler. Who knows! I sure would have like to see the program though.

About 90% of the time if there is a dipping operation involved in sealing or bascoating a bait they usually cut slots after carving, sealing and basecoating.

I would venture to say the lip slots are cut after they are carved, and I know some of the old bagley's were cut after painting.

There was a company in Missouri that made a bait in the bass oreno style that was constructed from lucite. The halves were cast or machined(can't recall if they were cast or milled from solid stock) and painted on the inside and then glued together although the final product was solid the paint was never subject to the rigors of fish and therefore, virtually indestructable. Now this design could be eloborated upon by casting or machining the baits with void to achieve the proper bouyancy for a floating plug. RainBow Wiggler is the name of the bait.

For the record I only helped Coley in water after he became wet attempting to test the vortex theory on his own (gravity and beer had something to do with it)

Nice Job Tater Rookie!

Coley, glad to see you made it back safely!

It certainly was a pleasure to meet you and Buce also. I have a fine picture of the cheesehead in full headgear, HaHa! We will get everybody covered! Yes, Josh is well on his way,for the few baits he has built you get indication as to what is to come and it looks all good to me!

Hello, Another fine time at the TU-MO meet. New faces from far away places and old friends unite again. Who would ever think the event in 3 short years would have international participation. As always it was a great group, couldn't think of a better way to spend 3 days! Nathan and Debbie pulled it off again, Thank You! Coley's fish is the best, he goes to alot of trouble to provide that for us, Thanks for all you did for me and the rest! Charlie Mitchell no more excuses you be there next time! Gene, sure was grand to meet with you again and see what the knife has created, top notch carver he is (Lincoya) First time I had the opportunity to meet the TU boss A.K.A. Redgator, Nice Guy thanks for all the gifts, Jerry, and hope you make it back this way again (I will bring more homebrew next year). As the plug swap goes, I made out like a bandit recieved some fine baits from the fellows! Dave was gracious enough to give a tour of his facillity and operational procedure, Thanks Dave!The meet just gets better every year, my only regret is 3 days isn't long enough! To all that attended this year, Thanks for the memories! Dan

Sound as if there is a void in the outer layer of the casting. No amount of cleaning is going to solve the problem although cleaning with thinner or alcohol should be done prior to priming. You might have to push glazing putty into the hole to fill it before priming.