eastman03

@albertaxpr there is SO much information out there! Some of it is conflicting too, it is hard to know where to start. I will lay out some basics, and hope it helps! There are different types of airbrush paints, water or solvent based. Both can be used, but start with water based acrylic airbrush paints. Solvent based paints can mess with finishes and the chemical fumes can be dangerous. Like Anyfish mentioned, don't start with cheap thick non-airbrush acrylic paints as they will be very hard to thin and spray. A good quality airbrush paint for the most part are ready to spray right out of the bottle without any thinning. You can get the small bottles of paint as they do last a while, a little paint goes a long way. Here are some examples of brands acrylic airbrush paint you can use. Createx (Createx Opaque Surf Blue – Maple Airbrush Supplies) -opaque/pearl/iridescent/transparent/pearl/fluorescent, also the wicked (slightly higher end) subset of colors. These are ALL good! (Avoid the Createx Candy O2 to start as they need some additional care). Golden - High Flow Acrylics (Airbrush | Michaels) I like these a lot, easy to spray right out of the bottle. They have pearls/transparent/opaques etc... Jacquard Airbrush color (Jacquard Products — Airbrush Color) Also good selection and easy to paint. There are many others! Feel free to ask. When you are new, don't experiment with homemade cleaners and thinners. You can run into problems with things not being compatible and making it worse when you are trying to learn. IF (or when I should say) your paint is a bit thicker and is spraying chunky, it may need thinning. Use an actual thinner (Createx 4021 Airbrush Paint Reducer – Maple Airbrush Supplies) to thin the paint to skim milk consistency (lots of videos on the topic). The same goes for airbrush cleaner, a bit expensive, but at least you know it is good for cleaning and ok for the airbrush. There are many recipes for homemade cleaners, which is fine, I'd recommend starting with a proper cleaner (Createx Airbrush Cleaner – Maple Airbrush Supplies) Lots of info, hope that helps!

@Big Epp wow, must have missed your comment. Here I am responding 4.5 years later lol. That's what forums are good for. Covid hmmmm, yea that kinda messed stuff up lol. I won't lie to you; it was nice having LOTW basically to myself and a few other locals. The fishing was pretty dang good for big muskies. Opposite time of year now from your questions, ice up time. Maybe one more musky trip to go yet. The weather has been amazing this far into November, I hope it continues. These lures work alright, I normally use a lot larger lures for muskies, so these have been good for pike. I'm making more lures at the moment, maybe I'll do another photo tutorial.

I agree with Mark. I'm in the process of doing exactly that right now on a bunch of musky lures. I mark out and cut the lip slot when the blanks are still a block, then shape the lure. The lexan I use has a film on it, so I mark out and draw a center line on the lure and the lip and line it up by eye. I only make about 12 lures at a time, maybe it would be different if you were making 100. There is some risk of chipping out around the lip slop for sure. Two of my blanks have small chip outs on the edges. I'm not too worried about it as those edge areas will be filled with epoxy when I glue the lip/wire in. It can be worse if you are going to use a router and the router bit grabs the lip slot, I've been there. I just didn't run the router up to the slot, I left it just short and used my sander to finish the edges of the lip slot.

Finishing a lure while keeping the reflectiveness is a lure makers holy grail. There are plenty form posts about these struggles (I think I was asking about this a while back). Almost all types of "chrome" or silver paint, or foils tend to lose a bit of luster when finished. There are some methods that preserve the shine better than others. I'd have a look at the engineered angler's playlist of finishing lures. He trials a bunch of ways to finish lures to try to keep the shine. I would try for your foil a layer of polycrylic perhaps? That tends to be a pre-finish that seals the lure and lets epoxy stick to it. But I'm not sure, just a suggestion. I learned that technique from some of Engineered Anglers videos. He has a bunch of videos showing ways to get good finish, as well as different foiling technique.

I'd have a peak at your local buy/sell like facebook marketplace or Kijiji. Seems like a lot of people have gotten into airbrushing for a brief time and sell it all when they realize they don't want to do it anymore. I've picked up a bunch of Golden/Aztek/Createx paints for a bargain that way.

I agree, every single type of finish will have its pros and cons. Make sure you learn how to use whatever you choose. I like a few different types of slow cure epoxy like Envirotex, Devcon 2 ton, Ecopoxy, Alumilite clear cast. They have all worked well. For my big musky lures, I will use two or three coats on the top to try to get protection.

wow that is cheap! My first airbrush was a badger patriot 105. It is a bit more expensive than the china no name junk. You can occasionally find it on sale. It was a very good airbrush for a long time for me, until I upgraded tot he iwata eclipse.

Yup, boats put away, time to brush off the lure making stuff. I like to experiment with painting and effects because it's fun, but I usually have a few standards when I fish. 1. Perch 2. Firetiger 3.cisco 4. walleye 5. Something wacky and bright, chartreuse with black dots. 6. Jet black Granted, cisco or walleye color patterns can vary a lot.