BobP

Well, you can only shoot it with an airbrush if the flake is very small so brushing is usually the deal. The problem I have with flake in clearcoat is that it's hard to distribute it exactly where you want it while at the same time doing a good job applying the clear. So I prefer to brush on the flake beforehand, using cheapo water based sparkle paint. $2 a bottle and it comes in a wide variety of colors. I squirt a little into a shot glass and thin it with water about 50/50, then use a soft artist's brush. You can exactly control how much flake goes where on the bait, which is a big advantage. Dab some on, take some off, move it around. When it dries, you can concentrate on doing a good clearcoat without worrying about the flake.

Besides Createx, check out taxidermy.com and http://www.taxidermy.net/suppliers/index.php for Smith Wildlife Colors, Polytranspar, and Van Dyke Nature's Gallery acrylic latex paints. I choose colors from these brands and haven't had any trouble mixing them on baits. The Polytranspar Superhide White is a great color basecoat. I can't speak to Auto Air, HOK, Kustom Colors, etc because I don't use them. I gather they are designed for autos, cycles, helmets, etc and their formulation (and price) is different from standard airbrush acrylics. I've been very satisfied using standard airbrush paint on crankbaits. When you topcoat them with a durable clear, they last at least as well as factory finishes.

Dick sent me an email that the DN Topcoat is the moisture cured poly that many of us have been using. I guess the Topcoat doesn't show up on the Lurecoat product page because it isn't lacquer like the Lurecoat. You can still order it with a TU discount. Just click on the DN banner ad and it will take you to a special page on his site with ordering information.

Hmm - You're right! It does say "lacquer". I thought DN is a moisture cured polyurethane and was so described the last time I bought some a year ago. Has the formulation changed? I dunno. Regarding Bloxygen, I can only say that I use it every time I screw the lid on my DN dipping jar and it has not begun to cure since I started using it a year ago. Before Bloxygen, it would skin over within 4 months no matter what precautions I took. So unless Dick Nite switched to a clearcoat with a different chemistry, Bloxygen would work. But that doesn't anwer your question directly; maybe a query to Dick Nite is in order. ps - I just sent an email to Dick Nite asking for clarification and will report back unless Dick is kind enough to post directly to the forum.

Rayburn Guy, from reading about UV enhanced DN and glow paints, I think they are two different animals. UV enhanced DN fluoresces when hit by UV light. Glow paint stores UV energy and releases it so that in total darkness, it still lights up. Glow paint is usually off white in color but can glow various colors (green, blue, red, teal, aqua, etc) depending on the chemistry. The different glow colors have different durations. Green is the most intense and can last 12-13 hrs, red only lasts 30 minutes, etc. They can also add paint pigment to glow paint so it will have a color in daylight, but that doesn't control the glow color. JR, after checking what glow color my existing "striper killer spoon" had (green) I ordered some glow paint from Glonation yesterday!

Re the ammonia "no-no", I got that from a TU post reporting that an Iwata rep said ammonia would eventually ruin an airbrush. So it's second (now third) hand info but since there are alternatives, why do it? Same for thinning paint, IMO. Look, a lot of TUers, certainly including me, are basically airbrush hackers. We airbrush periodically as part of a hobby, not every day as a business. When a pro like Hughesy comments on airbrushing, I sit up and listen. And when somebody with extensive airbrush experience like 68KF makes an observation, I tend to believe it. Regarding thinning agents, if you want to "home brew" versus buying ready-mixed, check out some of the airbrush sites for a mixture of water/isopropyl alcohol/dish soap/glycerin. I haven't tried it but remember somebody posting it here on TU at some point (I know it can be hard to find in the multitude of "airbrush posts").

I think a "standard perch" is neon yellow all over, orange belly, bright green shoulders, 4 black bars down the sides with a template, and black back. You can play around with the yellow and the orange belly to tailor it to local forage but the standard pattern has lots of contrast and works well in most places.

Does anyone use it and if so, what is your experience with it? I was lake fishing for stripers under threadfin shad schools last December with a glow white jigging spoon and hooking up on every cast. Other guys were catching on non-glow baits, but not as quickly. So I've ordered some glow paint to doctor some spoons for the coming late fall Striper Fest and to use when jigging for largemouth under shad schools this winter. You can now get nontoxic unpigmented (off-white in daylight) acrylic paint that glows one of several colors and the stuff works longer/stronger than the "old days". I'm not sure how best to apply it but I'm going to try a large tip airbrush. Would appreciate any tips from those who have used it. Rookie, not you. You probably only use it as body paint when you attend local raves:lol:

This is JMHO. I live in the SE U.S. and never see swimbaits in tackle shops. I think swimbaits for bass is still a niche deal concentrated in southern California. Pro tourney fishermen are spreading it to other areas, including large southern reservoirs. But it has not really caught on among "Average Joes". Even among the pro ranks, you see it employed mostly in the pre-spawn to immediate post-spawn period on lakes where there are large bass and large prey fish. I'm not saying it SHOULD be that way, it's just my sense of things from watching TV tournaments. Also, anything larger than a 1 oz swimbait really needs a special rod/reel that Joe Average doesn't own, and he's not enthusiastic about throwing a big bait all day to catch fewer but maybe larger bass. You need to market baits to your specific customers. You'd probably get best sales at a regional fishing show in early spring, and the closer to southern California the better.

I think you'll find some hobby acrylics shoot through a .3mm tip and others won't. Nor can you count on a new bottle of a brand/color shooting as well as the last one you used. You need to experiment on how much to thin it, but the rule of thumb is you want it about the viscosity of milk. The necessity of thinning every shot is one reason I switched to airbrush paint, which I can just squirt and shoot:)

Yes, you can shoot thinned hobby acrylics if your airbrush has a big enough tip. I used to shoot it with a Paasche VL and a Badger 170T. If your airbrush has a small tip, it will clog with the larger pigment grains in hobby acrylics. The dried paint surface is also rougher than airbrush paint, same reason. When I got a .2mm Iwata, I went 100% with airbrush paint and I think the modest exra cost is a reasonable trade-off for better flow, finer shading, and ease of use. When I used hobby paint, I'd thin it with plain water. If you want a flow enhancer, you can mix water/90% rubbing alcohol/dash of glycerin. Lots of guys use Windex to thin it but "standard" Windex contains ammonia which is not good for airbrush metal parts.

Kris, Here are some brief answers but I strongly suggest you use the SEARCH function on the right of the page to explore answers to your questions in depth. There's a ton on info on all of it. Createx is a popular and widely available brand of acrylic water based airbrush paint and it has a good standard palette of colors. Other brands like Polytranspar, Smith Wildlife, and Van Dyke sell a wide array of special colors. Check out dixieart.com, taxidermy.com and other taxidermy sites for them. Craft stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby carry Createx. Airbrushes - guys use different AB's, from single action Badgers running on canned air to $500+ ABs running on tool compressors. A double action/internal mix AB is far superior, and you generally get what you pay for. SEARCH on recent threads to find in depth discussions of the options. Several on-line companies including TU sponsors and Janns Netcraft sell unpainted crankbaits. Clearcoats fall into 2 generic camps - 2 part epoxies like Devcon 2 Ton, Envirotex Lite and others, and polyurethanes including auto clearcoats, Dick Nite's Fishermun's Lurecoat, etc. Again, search to get detailed info on pros/cons, how to apply them. The 2 most popular crankbait holders are locking forceps (aka hemostats) and the handles from Xacto type knives.

TUers come up with an amazing variety of foil solutions, from silver leaf to aluminum HVAC tape, to hologram transfers, to Mylar, to artist's foil designed for stained glass art. I've tried most of them and for me, Venture Brite-Bak artist's foil has been the best and the easiest to use. Here's one source for it - Mosaic Accessories by Venture at Sunshine Glass Brite-Bak is more reflective than HVAC foil and it's much thinner, so easier to hide the margins where the tape ends and the paint begins. Since it's tape, you don't need to glue it on the lure - just peel and stick.

I just build the occasional rod and am not going out and buying a rod lathe! You can do split rear grips using a 1/4" lag bolt of the appropriate length, a washer and a nut. The square "lag" protrusion on the bolt head holds the cork in place while you sand it down. Later, it goes away when you ream the cork to fit the blank. Chuck the assembly into a drill (preferably not cordless) and chuck the drill into a bench vise. Then sandpaper the cork to suit. No, it's not as easy as with a lathe. But it works.

I used Brite-bak adhesive foil and unscrewed the knurled adjuster knob from a pair of Vise Grips to pattern the scales. You can try any knurled knob around the house or find something in a tool section of a home center. Any round thingy that has a crosshatch pattern is a candidate. You can also use the threads of a bolt, rolled in crossing directions, but it's much harder to do a neat job with one.

Acetone or lacquer thinner - they soften and cloud plastic so if you wipe down a bait with them, don't get it on the lip. Denatured alcohol will not cloud plastic lips; nor will naphtha. The prep you do before painting is to get a clean, dust free surface. Player's choice how you do that. Is the surface dusty from sanding? Have you been handling the bait and eating a bag of Fritos? What is the surface?: smooth plastic or sanded finish remaining on a repaint? On repaints, I wash the sanded bait with dish soap, then shoot my white acrylic color basecoat. I like to keep it simple. Layering solvent and water based coatings is a crap shoot. You never know until you try it what will adhere and what will react badly.

Yes, it's great how congenial TU'ers have been through the years of the site's history. Not to say we never have someone's nose get out of joint but that's been pretty rare and the tone of the site has always been to help each other build better baits. 90% of the techniques and materials I use to build crankbaits were learned right here, shared freely by some of the best crankbait builders in the world. That sure smoothed out my learning curve and made this hobby something I love doing.

Hold on Thad - the 1/8" on the band saw blade refers to the longitudinal width of the blade, not the kerf, or how thin the blade is. I happen to use a scroll saw with the thickest blade available to cut bait blanks. It's about 1/32", perfect to cut a slot for a 1/32" circuit board lip (the only thickness I ever use). If all you ever use is balsa, the saw choice is not a biggie - either will cut balsa easily. If you expect to cut hardwood like basswood, cedar, etc, the band saw is much quicker. Cutting 1" thick basswood on a scroll saw is a lesson in patience, believe me, I know!

It's interesting to Google carp in the U.S. and find they were widely introduced by the federal and state governments in the late 1800's as a food source. Almost no river or lake of any size here in the SE is carp-free. But you won't find many carp fishermen here in the U.S., nor are they now cultivated for food. Here in North Carolina, there are a few carp fishermen who use rod and reel. Unlike Europe, they are often "stalked" and casted to like bonefish. The other method you see is carp hunting with bow and arrow from flats boats with raised platforms that allow the "hunters" see the fish in shallow water. Carp are long lived and grow very large here. It's typical to see schools of rarely molested 20-30 pounders cruising the shallows. When bass fishermen here in the U.S. have "educated" the last bass to avoid artificial lures, or have decimated the population through poor handling in the thousands of small tournaments held each year, carp fishing may catch on. 'Til then, it will be carp paradise for visiting fishermen from Europe.

An alternative "trick" related to RayburnGuy's: I apply oil based fish attractant on stickbaits before I put them on the hook. My favorite is Kickn' Bass which has a very strong garlic, craw, or anise scent and a pure fish oil base. It lubricates the plastic and when I set the hook on a bass, the plastic almost always slides up over the hook eye and onto the line, out of the way. Stickbaits like Sluggos have lots of plastic that can ball up when you set the hook, preventing a good hold on the fish. Using an oil based attractant has multiple "pluses" - prevents ball-up, attracts fish, and saves the bait from getting torn up so quickly.

Yep - the connectors only cost a couple of bucks at a home center. Look in the tool section where the air tools are. The connection from the moisture trap to the airbrush hose is usually a male-male connector (the airbrush hoses and the moisture traps I've seen have female ends). But like I said, it's easiest if you get all your components together and then go buy the connectors, knowing for sure which ones you need. If your compressor outputs 90 - 125 psi, a slight decrease in pressure due to a moisture trap is not relevant. You'll still have more than you can use. Many airbrushes, including Iwatas, specify max pressure less than 50 psi.

My wife had a Kodak camera and I loaded Easyshare software on our computer for awhile, until I recognized that it puts roadblocks in your way when you try to send pics to any other place than Kodak Processing. Who the heck wants that? I switched to Picasa too. It's a great program, very easy to use, very efficient, will do everything I want a pic program to do (including resizing & exporting pics to a file so you can upload them to TU) and best of all - IT'S FREE! Just go to the Google site and download a copy.

Dave, I know where you're coming from. We First World citizens take potable water, electricity, and other amenities for granted. Living in less developed countries for awhile can be an eye opener!

Michael, the best we can do is prepare ourselves and those we love to recognize and avoid situations where they may be in danger. You did that for your family when you moved to a quieter neighborhood. I think I can relate to what you are feeling about this episode and the perpetrator. But when all is said and done, she must understand that it will be up to HER to protect herself and her child. Encourage her to understand and recognize the danger - now and in the future, regardless of any emotional attachment she may feel for the guy, or any action good or bad on his part. His adult behavior patterns are a product of his upbringing and environment and he will always be a danger to her and her child, no matter what she wishes or says or feels. And she needs to act accordingly. Police and courts can only punish offenders after they offend. That's too damn late to be of much help when your life depends on it.

68KF, my airbrush compressor has a regulator/gauge unit and a separate moisture trap. Whatever your setup, you need both and can buy the parts separately if needed. DSV, I'd remove the hose that comes with the compressor if it were mine. It seems too unwieldy to me to have the long stock compressor hose with the airbrush hose added onto it - but your setup has to adapt to whatever your workplace dictates. You usually need to buy a male-male connector to connect the airbrush hose to the compressor/ regulator/moisture trap as needed. Don't hesitate to take your airbrush hose and moisture trap to the home center when you buy your adapters to make sure everything is male/female correct and fits.