fordguy_85

One thing I've done in the past, and it may not work with your clear/paint, is to spray the bait when finished with Lacquer clear in a can. It seems to bond the paint to the bait fairly well. I have actually fished with baits with one or two light coats of the lacquer and it will chip the paint off, but not really let it all start lifting away. Granted, I never did a real torture test like that, but I have fished with baits that were sprayed the night before a tournament without any issues. Basically, if it doesn't react with your paint ( I use all water based acrylics and BSI epoxy clear ) or clear, it is a little insurance if you chip the clear somewhere.

Jim, if you need another flat wart, I have a pre-Rap one I'd maybe trade for a few blanks... Lemme know.

True, Mark. But it should work fine with the epoxy finishes.

Another option would be to spray lacquer clearcoat over the foil to give it a little separation between the paint and the foil, to let the foil shine through a little better...

But, if you do, we want to see the video and hospital bill

Happy New Years everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!

FWIW, I had bought some Z-poxy finishing resin to try out for clearcoat due to it's longer pot life that turned out to be too yellow tinted to use. I happened to see it while experimenting with carving a jerkbait awhile back, and tried it to seal the bait with. It is alot thinner than most epoxies and is actually a finishing resin for wood, so it soaks into the wood pretty well, and on a turner levels out pretty much like any other epoxy. It does a great job of sealing the bait IMO

Another option is to mask the bill off, if applicable, and spray with 3m spray adhesive, then clearcoat over that... I've done that on a few baits, and they turn out really nice. I do typically airbrush at least the back and say kill spots on them though... Here's what one of them looks like.

Hey guys, I'm just getting started into swimbait making and was curious if anyone had any feedback on whether or not tungsten putty as is used sometimes in derby cars would be a good alternative to typical lead weighting e.g. egg sinkers, bullet weights, lead wire. Thanks in advance guys.

I would worry about rounding the edges of the lips to the point of affecting the baits action... It may not, but I'd worry about that

What I use for an air compressor is a 15gal Cambell Hausfield (sp?) that I let run outside to fill, then bring in to my paint room to paint with. I can get at least 4 or 5 baits, depending on air pressure used and how many colors to the pattern. Hope this may help a little. I have a small airbrush compressor, but can't stand the noise and cutting on and off while I'm painting baits.

I've used red, nickel, and black nickel hooks, and I haven't noticed an improvement going from the black hooks to red. But, for some reason that may just be my mind, I do seem to notice better bite ratios going from nickel to either black or red hooks. As was stated above me, that's just my two cents worth