BobP

I've had a HP-B + for several months and love it. The 1/8oz cup is plenty large enough for painting lures. I think it will do just what you want to do - much finer atomization and control, thinner coats of paint. BTW, it's also easy to clean and not fussy to operate.

I'm doubtful you'll find them because they are molded in as an integral part of the lure body.

eyes. After seeing half my sticky eyes come unglued 2 mins after applying clearcoat, I started drilling recessed eye pockets. I use a Dremel and a high speed cutter cylinder. I even do this when repainting plastic baits, if not a recess at least creating a flat spot in the plastic for the eyes to sit flat. I prefer 3D eyes but others paint eyes using homebrew applicators or "eye dotter" foam sticks you can get at staminainc.com. I don't know of any way to make sticky eyes adhere to fresh paint on a curved surface.

Yes, I use 10-15 psi on my Iwata HP-B for lines and 35-40 psi for general coating/shading. It's very adaptable. They are hand tuned at the factory for spray pattern and you can really see a difference when you run water through the Iwata versus a Paasche VL. The VL is a heavy mist; the HP is almost as fine as smoke and more uniform. I still use a VL and a Badger Crescendo for color basecoating and shooting coarse hobby acrylics. They are still great tools. But the HP opens a new level of precision. Fine color gradation and details that were definitely beyond my very average airbrush skills are now now within reach - or at least feasible with more experience and practice

Reducing = thinning. Some use Windex instead of water. Createx sells 4011 Reducer, which has the same function. I THINK back flow is blocking off the tip of the brush and running water or Windex through it so the syphon hole on the brush is cleaned. It's a quick and dirty way to clean the brush between paint colors (but disassemble it for a thorough cleaning when you're through painting!). Personally, I keep a spray bottle of water handy and use it to clean out the syphon cup, then spray a stream of water directly into the syphon hole while the brush is running, same result.

JMHO, there is none. I have no more problems shooting cheap hobby acrylics thinned with water than with airbrush formulated paints. Plus, they come in a much wider array of colors. Yes, the cheap paints have coarser paint particles, but they don't seem to cause any more clogs than Createx when using a Paashe VL or Badger 175T. You can even add Createx 4011 Reducer if you want, to give it some flow enhancement and quicker drying, but that's not really necessary. The only problem I've had is that a few of the cheap acrylics don't mix well with other brands, but that's rare. I use alot of Apple Barrel colors but will snag any brand if the color's right. At 99 cents a bottle, cost is never an issue.

I have a Paasche VL and an Iwata gravity feed HP-B Plus. I don't believe gravity feed will make a finer pattern. That's a function of the tip/needle/cone used in the brush. The Iwata comes with one tip/needle/cone that shoots a very fine, very finely atomized pattern that is suitable for fine line work to general coverage work with acrylic paint. The VL and similar brushes have much larger apertures, even using their finest spray sets. I never got my VL to freehand fine lines (maybe some guys can, but not me). The HP-B solved that. Alternatively, you can stick with the VL and use friskets to get the fine details done. More than one way to skin a cat! BTW, my HP-B has the smallest 1/8 oz gravity feed cup, which has turned out to be plenty of paint to shoot a few crankbaits. Makes it easy to clean, too.

After cutting a blank on my scroll saw, I use a Dremel for everything else except final hand sanding, including rounding the edges (fine ?120? grit sanding drum), drilling holes for ballast and recessed eyes (high speed cutters), drilling holes for hook hangers (a non-dremel set of small bits) and removing clearcoat from the hangers after the bait is finished (a piece of ss wire chucked in the Dremel). In addition to the normal 1/8" diameter Dremel attachments, you'll want a collet set so you can chuck in smaller tools. Whether I use the Dremel on crankbaits or not, I end up using it almost every day for something around the house. Another great Dremel attachment is the fiber reinforced cutting wheels. Cuts steel almost like butter.

I Dremel a matching pocket in each side for 1/8" dia lead solder and epoxy it in while joining the two halves. I route the thru-wire to accomodate. Want to get complicated? Throw in a good size rattle chamber!

Yes, I waterproof with epoxy, dull it with a light sanding and then shoot the acrylics. I use white acrylic as the color basecoat. No sense in getting too complicated, besides the more different coating types you apply to a bait, the better the chance that two of them won't behave.

For bass baits, there is a definite trend towards thinner lip material. I'd get the 1/16" (.0625") polycarbonate. It will hold up just fine. PC is very tough stuff.

Whoa! Bummer on the Seal Coat. I must believe it has solvent in there to do that to acrylic paint!

I've done that and have the same problem when replacing a broken diving bill. What works for me is U-40 Rod Bond paste epoxy. Rod Bond is a medium thick epoxy paste that comes in 2 4oz jars for around $10. It's made for gluing cork handles and reel seats onto rods and is very strong. 8oz of the stuff lasts a long time and can be used for other jobs too. It has a work time of more than 1 hr and takes 24 hrs to cure hard. You can smooth it out with a finger while uncured and clean up any that gets on a plastic or Lexan bill with a Q-tip dipped in naphta (aka lighter fluid). The paste makes it easy to position bills in too-large slots without epoxy leaking all over the place. Other paste epoxies are available at home centers if you'd prefer a smaller volume, but Rod Bond is what I've tried.

I don't know any chemical that would take off the claws without damaging the bill's plastic. I'd try scraping off the paint and, if needed, clearcoating the bill along with the rest of the repainted crankbait.

One easy method is to use aluminum duct tape from Home Depot. It has waterproof adhesive on one side and smoothes down nicely. Just peel and stick. If you want gold, go over the silver foil after you texture it with a Goldenrod color Permacolor pen to give it a muted gold effect.

To thin hobby acrylics, I squirt paint in the airbrush's siphon pot and shoot in a little water from a spray bottle. Stir with a swizzle stick or one of those plastic stir sticks from a Devcon syringe. If you pull out the stick and the paint tries to form a column up to the stick, it's too thick. One instruction I saw says you want the paint no thicker than milk, which is a good analogy. If you're blending colors, do it in a different container - I like a shot glass. Hobby acrylics not formulated for airbrushing contain larger paint particles so you need to thin them more than Createx to prevent clogs.

Nice work! That's an interesting body design.

Guess there can be several problems. You definitely need to prime with a flat white before shooting color. I use diluted Apple Barrel flat white acrylic and dry it with a hair dryer (gently, so you don't push paint around or cause it to crack). Also, if you're blasting paint off the bait, you must be shooting too fast and too close. Back off a ways and shoot some practice paint before you do your baits. You can USUALLY shoot pearlized Createx right out of the bottle but I sometimes dilute it with water if it seems thick. In my experience, neither the Cresendo or the Paasche VL are going to shoot acrylic hobby paints with enough control (at least not with my finger on the trigger!) that you can do details like gill slits, kill spots, etc. But they are good for most painting and shading. I shoot the belly first and work my way up, then use Sharpie pens for details.

I like 1/16" polycarbonate (e.g. Lexan) or .032" G-10 circuitboard for bass baits. As far as finding the center line of a blank, I scribe a line around it with a compass after marking a center dot with a ruler. Flip the bait around and do it from the other side too. If There's any variance in thickness, that will find it. The line shows you where to put the hardware and it serves as a good visual reference while you're shaping and sanding the bait. You're on the right track - half the work in turning out a bait that runs right is keeping everything lined up and symetrical. Width for small bass baits is purely subjective. I favor thin (3/8") flat cranks for shallow baits because they have a tight wiggle. Flat/Thin is trendy right now. Thick round baits with wide wiggle get more popular as the water warms.

Brass wire (I use .040") is good for the line tie on a bass lure because it's easy to tune and can help the lure to "hunt", which is a desirable action. Whatever anchors the trebles strongest and straightest is best for hook hangers. That's SS wire. But practically speaking, I've done thru wire frames on balsa baits with .040 brass or even .032 brass wire and haven't had subsequent problems with durability or performance while fishing those lures. But it undeniably makes them a bit less durable than they would be with SS wire hangers. Maybe a couple of years down the road, one of those hangers will break. But not yet The brass wire is also alot easier to form than SS.

Yes, it matters whether the baits are symetrical and clearcoated. Especially balsa. I guess your buddy's shooting for the ultimate disposable bait - one that runs so-so, leaks water and explodes the first time on the water. It's easy to make mediocre baits that don't catch fish and won't last. It's hard to build good ones. You'll see :-D I don't argue that "gilding the lily" sometimes happens with bait making. But at minimum, it should run straight at the depth and speed intended, and be durable enough to get your effort's worth out of building it. If you also get a sense of pride and accomplishment out of the process, that's gravy. I bet pretty soon your buddy will be asking you to build him some.

After mixing the epoxy, I dip my brush in denatured alcohol and flick a few drops into the mix (I mix enough epoxy for 2 baits at a time). It only takes a little. Don't thin it if you have anything on the bait's finish that can disolve/run with solvent.

I guess the color of G-10/FR4 depends on its substrate. If it's fiberglass, it's usually a shade of green. There are other substrates like linen, etc that have different colors. The whitest green G-10 I've bought came from www.asp-rocketry.com. It isn't the cheapest but if color is critical there you go. ASP sells .031 and .040 G-10. For anything but a musky bait, I much prefer the .031" stuff.

Polecat, your method's fine for bass lures. A thru-wire is even more fail proof but if you're epoxying the screws in, if they're sufficiently long, and if you also clearcoat/undercoat your bait with epoxy - I'd bet it ain't gonna fail during a bait's typical life cycle.