BobP

I don't think you need to brush on the topcoat, that's just instructions for the typical furniture painter. I assume you're using acrylic paint. I used a brand from Michael's Craft shops formulated for acrylics. I spray and dry the base coat, brush on the crackle medium, then spray the topcoat. If I dry the topcoat slowly, I get small crackles. If I dry it quickly, they're large. The trick is getting both sides to resemble one another. I haven't quite gotten that part down yet!

On baits with the line tie on the lip, I make a hand-wound screw eye, bend it 90 degrees, insert it and then crimp the long end over the back of the lip in a little slot I Dremel in there. For big deep divers where the tie is far out on the lip, I do the same but put some epoxy on the bottom of the lip along the length of the screw eye to make sure the line tie will stay solidly in place and the bait will stay in tune. I guess how you do it depends somewhat on the materials you're using. I mostly use soft temper stainless steel wire - it's just much easier to bend and shape so everything fits tight.

Sorry, no stencil pics but I use them for most detail - craws, perch bars, gills, kill spots, etc. I tried plastic sheets but for me it was hard to cut accurately and get the detail I was after. Switching to a frisket material made a big difference. It's thin so conforms to the convex shapes of baits better. It's about as easy as cutting a piece of notebook paper and you can get as much detail as you have the patience to do. Frisket material becomes a little floppy when heated with a hair dryer and it tends to stick to fresh dry acrylic just a little. You can use a finger tip to get parts of it tight to the surface and the rest of the stencil won't slide around on the bait like plastic stencils tend to do.

I've never seen any ready-mades for sale and besides, you need one that fits the bait you're painting. My advice is buy some sheets or a roll of stencil (aka frisket) material. I use the kind with a peel-off backing and one roll is a lifetime supply. Then find a craw pattern bait you like and copy the heck out of it They don't have to be too detailed to get a good effect. I draw the pattern, cut it out with an xacto knife and voila. Tip - don't remove the paper backing on the stencil when you use it, just hold it against the bait. Then you can flip it over (after drying the overspray with a hair dryer) and use the same stencil for the other side. That saves a bunch of work making 2 identical stencils AND you can reuse the stencil on future baits.

WBF, Hmm - If your compressor runs at 30 psi SUSTAINED, it should shoot unthinned acrylic airbrush paints OK. Now, if you're shooting hobby acrylics, maybe you need to thin them some more. If your compressor is running only 15 psi sustained, you'll need to thin everything more. The basic "rule of thumb" is you want your paint to be thinned to the consistency of milk.

I think anywhere is OK as long as it's not at the pivot point around which the crankbait rotates when it wiggles. The pivot is often (but not always) at the ballast. Always put it in across the width of the crankbait for most noise. On smaller 2" crankbaits, it can be hard to find a place that's wide enough to hold the rattle. I usually put mine slightly above and behind the ballast too.

Diemai, Putting attractant beside your fishing chair is like camping beside a wounded zebra on the African plain. The lions are definitely gonna want a snack after they finish the zebra. You're it. A better strategy is to invite along a friend who's allergic to DEET, and then slather it on yourself while he acts as your "sacrifical anode"

Do a search on the topic for specific brands/models. It's mostly about sustained pressure vs noise. Some have reported good results with specific models of inexpensive imported airbrush compressors. But watch out for cheap imported compressors advertising 30 psi. They usually have sustained pressure of about 15 psi after you pull the airbrush trigger - very marginal as most guys want at least 30 psi sustained. Others use (and like) a larger tool compressor with an integral storage tank. They are often cheaper than airbrush compressors, louder, but develop lots of pressure (not a problem if you add a pressure regulator). Either option offers units in the sub-$100 range.

I also think your best bet for a clearcoat would be an unthinned epoxy not containing solvent like Devcon Two Ton since it has less chance of reacting with your color coats. Over oil paint, I'd be sure the color is absolutely dry before clearcoating, however long that takes. As to matte vs gloss, I can't see a difference when the bait is submerged and besides, do not know of a matte epoxy. All this assumes you plan to actually fish the bait.

I'm wondering if you cut the Devcon with a solvent? That sometimes attracts insects. But I wouldn't think you'd need to thin your epoxy if it's 100 degrees outside!

I generally agree with Rofish but think vacuum would just suck a bunch of air out of the bait and into the epoxy finish. I also think pressure may supress bubbles or make them smaller but might cause a problem after the bait is returned to normal pressure. A bait can withstand much more pressure from the outside than it can from inside due to its surface curvature. If I were going to try one, I'd pick pressure. But I wouldn't get my hopes up because I think MOST epoxy bubbles are caused during its application.

Nice effect! That should get their attention!

Google results suggests they are a house brand at Academy Sports, probably the only source other than Ebay.

I'm doubtful that the dryness of the paint is the problem. I quickly dry airbrush paint with a hair dryer between colors and when finished, can immediately clearcoat and put them on lure rotator with no pooling problem. Epoxy cures regardless of moisture, even under water. A box lined with tin foil and a 100W bulb will dry paint but you wouldn't want to use it to speed the curing of epoxy on a wood bait because the heat will expand air in the bait and cause bubbles in the clearcoat. If you employ a heated box for drying paint, I'd also not leave it unattended overnight due to the possibility of fire.

Hey, I got a Merc 150 EFI and had ACTUAL FLAMES coming out of it last week. Yours look much nicer. The smoke was obscuring mine

Rookie, try some Van Dyke's Translatex Cover White or Polytranspar Super Hide White. They are heavily pigmented white acrylic latex airbrush paints and will cover just about anything in one or two coats. I favor the Translatex Cover White because it adheres great and is durable. You can lightly scrub subsequent coats of color off of Cover White with a sponge and running water without affecting it. I'm leery of oil and solvent based primers because of the odor they can leave on the bait after finishing.

Hey, I started out with a $25 Badger 250 setup and Propel CO2 cans. If you decide you like building and painting baits, you'll move on to better (easier to use and more expensive) equipment but it's a great way to get your feet wet without breaking the bank. And you can do useful work with it.

J, the only ones you have to impress are the fish unless you're building for sale. It takes time and practice for most guys to produce "pretty" paint jobs. I cringe when I see baits I painted years ago. Fortunately, I've covered up that ugliness with new paint. A few years from now I'll probably cringe again when I see this year's But at least I'll know I've gotten better. Slowly, slowly....

I've gotten paulownia here: Custom Millwork, Historical Reproductions, Natural Edge Slabs, Kiln Dried Hardwoods, 3",4", 5" Wide Flooring, Basswood for Carvers from Full Cycle Woodworks. It's one of a very few places online that aren't just selling paulownia trees. Kiln dried and cut to order. BTW, like most woods, paulownia density can vary greatly. An earlier batch I got from another source was MUCH harder and more dense (33% heavier). That's not necessarily bad but you should discuss density with the seller to get what you need. There are multiple sources for basswood and balsa. In buying balsa, I recommend you order "Hard Balsa". "Competition" or light balsa is meant for model airplanes and is very light and soft, requiring heavy reinforcement for crankbaits. I know - I've been working through a box of competition balsa for 2 years and am looking forward to it being GONE.

And drill some pilot holes for them, then put in a little epoxy when you mount the screw eyes.

You don't want to see the sharp rear corners of a lip sticking out to either side of the crankbait. It's more an esthetic than a functional thing. I sand them off with a Dremel sanding drum. My impression is that a lip that narrows to the width of the lure's nose tends to pull a little easier. That's significant on deep diving lures that produce a lot of retrieve resistance anyway. The increased pull resistance is the reason many guys don't fish deep diving baits. If you pull the lip out of a Rapala DT16, you'll see the lip narrows at the bait's nose and then widens again to conform to the inside width of the head slot.

I met Lee briefly when he was just starting Sisson Lures and attended a show in Greensboro NC. Nice guy. Somebody asked if you can tell the baits are rotomolded? Yes, they sometimes have grooves spiraling around the circumference of the body which show through the finish. Not obtrusive, but you can see and feel them. You see the same thing on balsa lure bodies you buy from several on-line sources. Most of the Sisson baits I've seen or owned also have a small lead plug in the lip under the line tie. I saw some in Walmart without that feature however.

I use a Badger 1/10 hp AB compressor and no, it is not quiet enough to use inside the house. Most of the quiet AB compressors are also expensive. If you have a tool compressor, you can buy a portable air tank and fill it up outside, then use it. Like Spare Tire says, a CO2 tank is ideal since it is silent, dry gas and nontoxic. But of course you have to buy a tank and get it refilled periodically.

I picture you sitting at the workbench, chewing like crazy to get more crankbait foil Another thing you might try for really flashy foil is one of those Mylar "space blankets" sold in camping supply stores. One blanket is a lifetime supply and it's pretty thin stuff. Use contact cement to glue it down. I use a fingertip to get a very thin coating of glue so there will be no glue residue bumps under the foil.