Bear's plastic is good. I've used M-F, Calhoun's and some generics all are easy to use, at least for me. I heat in a micro and use a hot plate and pan to pour once the bulk is melted.
Enjoy
I started because I couldn't find what I was looking for color wise. After that it is just became an addiction. I still buy factory plastics but catch most of my fish on hand pours.
Craig,
I heat in a micro and pour from alumumin pans. I pre-heat the pans on a hot plate and then pour from them. I like you prefer to pour from the smaller pans.
I mainly use LC molds and they work great for me. I pour for my own use so I can't justify the cost difference for aluminum since I can't see that much difference in detail between the two
Here are a couple of Abu Garcia Torno reels I just painted. I'm not real sure how well these pictures will be. I painted them with Rustoleum Plastic paint. They are graphite reels. [/img]