mark poulson

Is that Bill and Hillary? I'm just jealous.

I have no experience repainting a BBZ, but someone on this forum has done it. The thread is on page three of the hardbait forum.

I just modified a double blade buzz bait, putting more buoyant yellow foam over the head, and painting the blades black. Swims great, but it hasn't gotten bit (yet).

I coat the insides of the joints with D2T while the lure is apart. Especially in cold weather, D2T won't run or sag, if you don't put it on too thick, so you don't have to put it on a drying wheel. Now that the garage is cold, I heat the D2T to make it thinner and easier to brush into the joints. I make sure to lap the epoxy onto the faces about 1/4", but thinly, so the face epoxy had a good overlap. Then I hang the parts individually to set. In cold weather, I have to wait 5-6 hours before the epoxy isn't tacky any more. Otherwise, the epoxy sticks to itself and pulls off. After the D2T had really set, I assemble the lure, put it on the drying wheel, and coat the faces. I used to use Etex, now it's Nu Lustre 55 UV inhibited. I put on a second coat, but wait 24 hours in the winter.

Snax is the real Createx expert. Do a search for him, and send him a private message with your questions. As I understand it, the reducer is the same thing as the extender. It's something you use to thin the paint without losing the film strength.

My airbrush has a .3 needle also. I keep my pressure up at 42lbs, and I can spray Createx without thinning. But thinning a little keeps the tip from getting clogged, which it can do after a short time with unthinned pearls and opaques. Transparents don't seem to need thinning at all. For my brush with the .2 needle, I thin everything. For Hobby Lobby and Apple Barrel paints, I do thin it with Windex until it's the consistency of non-fat milk. I also add some Createx reducer. I would check what each manuf. recommends as a thinner, and use that, to keep the paint film strong.

I see in the gallery Nate uses a reversed joint on his latest shad.

For anyone just starting, or having trouble getting their lures to swim, this is GOLD!

Your process sounds right. A lot will depend on how the paint reacts with the top coat. I'd probably do a small test just to be sure, but I learned most of what I know about painting from my mistakes. If you're just fooling around, the Flexcoat will work, probably with two coats. But it pisses me off when I get a paint scheme I like, and then the top coat yellows and changes it completely.

Ha, ha, all night sessions will do that! You're right, white is a great color! Glad to hear you survived.

I think you're too worried about this. Snake-like lure swim great. I don't think a snake shape is that far off from a fish. I think the trick is going to be how to mount some hooks that won't snag the weeds. Even if you had mount single hooks in the back of the snake, it's going to be tough to get it to land belly down every time. I hope you figure it out, and post some pictures. Good luck.

I'm sure you could sue the implant manuf. and retire.

I finally posted the photos in the gallery. I had to tweak the joints to get them to swim well. In hindsight, I think it's because I reversed everything, so the pivot point is in the back of each section, instead of the front. This makes for a longer arch for each section when they swing side to side, and actually dampens the action. I'm going to make one with reversed joints but with the screw eyes mounted in the rear face of the joints, like in the conventional lures, to see if this helps. Sorry this took so long to post. I just rescued my computer.