nitro98

its higher shore harness silicone and if your not set to pour it your going to be out some $$ experimenting. stuff is not cheap. You can do it with plastisol but it will tear and rip on you if you try to remove it.

the issue i had with the alumilite is the cure time, 24 hours is such a pain expecially prototyping...oomoo cures so much faster (30 is like 5 hours) and is really durable if you plan out your part undercuts. if you have a bunch of undercuts just be gentle removing the part. i can generally get 30 to 40 hard multi joint swimbaits out of a mold if im careful and take my time. also remember if you get a tear mix a little of the same silicone your mold is made of and brush a small amount on the torn pieces to "glue" them back together(if is a big enough section that was torn apart). End of the day your mold is only as good as the prep you put into it..IE venting ect. i use the platinum cure for casting platinum cure silicone part..if you mix tin and platinum cure silicone your going to have a mess.

with all that epoxy you better be checking your balance

if you do light coats and heat set you practically dont even have to clear but the proper way is to clear after paint. again the key... just like any airbrush painting is multiple light coats.

Using an airbrush and any of the water based airbrush paints. Very light coats heat set between coats then clear. Just wipe the lexan down with denatured alcohol prior to paint to clean it. Very easy you can sand if you want but not necessary.

glad i could help. Shoot me a pm if you have any other questions

do you mean it swims sideways? or is it sideways in a stationary position? Either way you have too much float (not enough ballast) if the bottom of the bait is not sinking to put the bait in a vertical position. There are different solutions to these two conditions.

Wait till some else catches fish in something you've made!

heat gun works fine. set between colors and you cant go wrong. just dont let it blow in one spot very long. you can see the paint setting while you do it. like was said before your not going to be able to treat it like it was on a t-shirt.

Also be mindful of your cure time. A lot of the faster cure resins have better strength properties than the slower cure varieties. Either way works jsut depends on your set up and preference

To me a 3" and smaller segmented bait is not a "swimbait". Put a bill on a bait that size and it is a jointed crank or stick bait IMO. I know Mr. Hopkins has made some pretty small baits so he may be able to chime in but I dont mess with them. Kinda defeats the purpose of the "big bait theory". Also if this is your first swimbait build..you may want to start larger and work your way down in size instead of the opposite. Just trying to save you some headaches. Just my two cents good luck to ya

Man I cant barely copy my own patterns much less someone elses. At the end of the day though it is the action of the bait that sells the fish not the paint job.

Oh ok. I was like what the heck is this guy talking about.

im confused here... your orignal question does not make sense. You vacuum form a master? how do you mold the vacuum form in RTV? And why waste that much time replicating it as your not going to get anything different? It the vacuum form the actual mold? If so how are you going to cast resin in it? That stuff bonds to just about anything but RTV even with mold release. Why do you want it to be "shiney"? the bait is going to be painted anyway. Do you mean very smooth? Sorry ive been staring out this post wondering...what are you talking about

Merry Christmas everyone

just a dab of epoxy will do the trick. just enough to get between the pin and the inside of the hole. let it dry holding the bait from the nose wipe off any excess before it dries. Its that simple. if you make your pins 1/4" long you can paint all together pull the pins out clear as seperate pieces then trim the excess pin and put it all back together again. Again not hard at all