mark poulson

The vinyl lure paint I use is a solvent based paint. If I were you, I'd paint up a couple of samples and try different "barrier" coatings until I figured out how to stop the bleeding, or I'd switch to another top coat. I use a vinyl lure paint clear to coat my jigs. I get some interesting effects when I color the lure heads with alternating stripes of color with sharpies, and then dip them in the lure clear after they've dried. The colors run enough to blend the edges together, and I get a cool looking marbled effect.

If I'm understanding you, you're using a water-based paint, and a water-based clear. If so, this should help. Heat set the paint, then try spraying a coat of Krylon pastel fixative before you top coat, to make a barrier between the paint and the top coat.

Try brush on crazy glue.

You are really good at painting, for a first-timer with an airbrush. I've never used the Krylon Urethane as a topcoat, but I use their primer, spray glitter, and pastel fixative, and love them. Let us know how the urethane holds up as a topcoat.

Another TU member, Nathan Bettencourt, suggested mixing the glitter with Minwax Polyacrylic, and then brushing it on. I do that now, and it works great. It dries clear, takes epoxy fine, and really lets the glitter sparkle and shine. Seafoam, I love the idea of the coffee grinder. Super fine glitter sounds great! Thanks for the tip!

If you build a wheel like the one in the tutorial you'll never be sorry.

I wouldn't go any smaller than the .03 tip, or you'll surely have trouble spraying the pearl paint without thinning it, which means a lot more coats. If you go the thinner route, use the reducer/thinner that Createx recommends, or a small amount of Windex. Too much thinning can make the paint film weak, and make it bond poorly. Do a test on a piece of PVC pipe with a small batch of thinned paint first to make sure it works before you start painting a lure. Heat set after each coat with a hair dryer. Start on low speed fan and high heat, so you don't chase the wet paint around on the lure, and then finish with the higher fan speed, if you have a two speed/heat setting hair dryer. The hotter you can get the paint the better it sets. As Downriver pointed out, this is really T shirt paint, which is meant to be heat set with an iron before it's washed, so it likes heat.

I bought my syringes from the www.mudhole.com site that sells Flexcoat, and they haven't given me any problems. They are labeled Flexcoat 3cc syringes, specifically for mixing epoxy. Look under the rod building supplies. Switching to syringes has made my life sooooo much easier. No more worrying about the right mix, or mixing too much and wasting epoxy. Someone on this forum suggested using them, and I'll always be in his debt. Unfortunately, I can't remember who it was, but I owe him bigtime.

If you're going to try the low pressure route, be sure and thin you paint. Nothing is more frustrating than a clogged tip in the middle of a line. Practice on a blank piece of paper, and then start your line off the lure, and move onto it and across with one motion. Thinned paint may require multiple passes, like with the transparent yellow I use for the stripes on my sexy shad lures.

I switched to Nu Luster 55 with UV inhibitors to stop yellowing. Even over D2T, it doesn't yellow. But, if I use Krylon spray glitter before I topcoat, I do still get yellowing of the glittered areas. Weird. Too bad. The spray glitter is really handy. I'm thinking about spraying Krylon pastel fixative over the glitter, to see if that stops the yellowing, before I topcoat with the epoxy. If it doesn't work, I'm going back to mixing the glitter in Minwax Polyacrylic (thanks Nathan) and brushing it on, for my lures.