gunnie3035

I've ordered many molds from Shawn. Like the above post said; pay your money and wait in line, he will come through. I think price depends on the mold, but most run about $165. His work is tight dude. You won't find a better mold anywhere. If your going to play this game just expect molds to take anywhere from 2-6 months for delivery regardless of which company you choose.. Sometimes they have them in stock and you get them in a few days, but that is the exception.

It will fall out from time to time when your cleaning it. Throw it back in no big deal.

I buy mine directly from placon.com by the case. Not sure if .21 is a good price or not for that size.

I also use flux brushes, but I toss'em when finished. I'm guessing you have some sort of texture on the bait that doesn't allow devcon to fill in. You can brush over some of it, but sometimes no matter what ya do it just wont fill in. I used to get it all the time. After heat setting the paint take some automotive clear in a rattle can and cover the bait lightly a few times. This will smooth out your surface and the devcon will fill in and look like glass. Also works wonders with etex.

Sexy shad line: freehand your line using creatix flouro yellow and a drop of white, not too dark, just dark enough to see. Retrace your line using straight flouro yellow. Darken until for happy. The transparent flouro yellow will blend really nice over the yellow/white base. see new uploads for an example. I didn't see anyone mention retarder. This will help a great deal with painting fine details. Sometimes its like painting with an entirely different brush.

Doesn't the flex coat yellow and chip more than 2-ton? I've tried the glitter in epoxy, but it always comes to the surface and makes for a rough finish. But I have never tried putting on a second coat of epoxy after the glitter finish.

All right boys I'm seeing this gelcoat finish showing up more and more on crankbaits. Are we talking about the same gelcoat use for boat repair or clear gelcoat used on surf boards? For all I know it is the same stuff. I ran a search and suprisingly very little info came up on it. Anyone care to share the wealth?? If you dont want to say it out loud send me a PM.

Bav88 spoke the only truth on this matter. The only reason most people don't catch big fish is because they don't fish for big fish. Keep on reading all that nonsense the pros are sellin ya. They are the best in the world at catching better than average fish under a time restriction. They don't know jack about catching trophy fish in the average pond. Anyone can go down Mexico way chuck an 8" bait for a week and whack a 10. Try the same stuff on a lake above 4,000 feet. Most people just don't have the dedication it takes to catch a good one. Make all the excuses and justifications you want, but this is fact......

And I bet the bad side was your off hand side?? If right handed, it would be the baits left side if it is facing you OR the bad side was pointed a direction that didn't have good lighting on it. I don't know if this is your problem, but I have some bad habits when painting. When spraying the back make sure you go the same speed and try to maintain a similar distance over the curve of the back. Start and stop the airbrush only AFTER it has went over the entire length of the bait. If you start, stop, or reverse direction, before clearing the end of the bait the paint will be thicker and that particular spot. If you dont want as much paint say on the top of the head, just paint the back spraying only one direction. #1 rule: make sure you have good lighting in the paint booth.

Any of the major tackle supply places carry weedless trebles.

These baits had been sitting on the hanger for better than a week. I will try the auto clear on a regular crank and see what happens with the etex. Perhaps I havent been waiting long enough for it too loose its charge and dust is causing the problem.

I just can't get this etex stuff down. For whatever reason I just can't get it to cover baits painted with creatix. I can get it to cover craft paints fine, but not creatix. Both are heat sealed and the etex is carefully meassured. I also take extra steps to make sure I don't ever touch the bait. Adding a 2nd coat does not fix the problem area either. It seems the problems are worse on the baits that don't have scales, like a pointer 100. I really want to use etex so I dont have to deal with chipping and yellowing. But, yesterday I had some muti-jointed swimbaits that needed a clear coat. It was Sunday and since wally world quit selling 2-ton I was stuck with etex. I took these baits [painted with creatix] and sprayed some automotive clear on them. Dried it with a blow dryer and applied etex. Threw them on the wheel and they turned out better than a factory finish. The only thing I can figure is something either in the paint or how it is applied is causing the etex to pit for whatever reason. Perhaps the automotive clear sealed these imperfections and allowed the etex to self level. Can anyone explain this one??

Since no one really answered the original question I will say this; I like to clear $15 off each bait [above the cost of the bait], but it usually ends up around $10. If you can paint in sets of 3, then you can make some $$. If your doing baits one at a time, it will be tough. People will pay $30-$35 for a good paint job on a Lucky Craft. They won't pay $12 for a Norman with the exact same paint. Point is, it takes the same amount of time and money to paint a lucky as it does a norman. One final thought, why does everyone try to copy the factory colors?? If you can't make it better or different there is no reason why they should pay more.....