eastman03

Where are you from? Welcome here!

I made myself a quick suick replica (bit bigger and a bit more weight) before I headed up to eagle nest lodge to do some guiding. Got out a bit on my own. Caught lots of pike. This was the biggest. On my OWN lure. Sure adds to the feeling of catching a fish!! Needs a few more layers of epoxy for proper protection.

I have had my ball valve kinda stick on me to. My patriot will just blow air or take a few seconds for the air to stop shooting out. Not sure how to fix. I took my airbrush apart and dropped some airbrush cleaner in the valve. Seems to work now, but probably not for long. Let us know if you find a fix !

Lots to think about in applying the be foil. Thanks guys. I will look up that flash tape for sure. I have been looking for some sort of bright/ iridescent colour of tape that is thin. I've found thick stick on safety type tape. Nothing thin enough to wrap on a lure yet.

Ahhh the fins. I've had more flops than good ones. I wish I could get more to look like that one too. I've only made a handful of baits, so I hope I can get more consistent at it. Sure is fun. Thanks for the compliment! I keep watching YouTube vids and see how guys like solar and marling make their fins. Lots of great videos there

Really appreciate the compliments and the help guys! I will keep my eye out for thin foil and I also picked up a plastic bone folder for edge work. Any of you guys from Canada? Only airbrush paint I can find is testers at michaels. It has worked great but limited colours. I hear so much about hobby lobby, might have to make a trip. Or do most of you order online. I would like to get some createx, seems like the best brand with lots of colours.

I've been watching a bunch of videos of lure makers adding foil as a quick cheap way to get lots of flash out of a lure, so I figured I'd try it too. Here are a few of my thoughts and results. I need to have primed and painted the base colour that I want on the top before I think. Then I can fade it into the foil. Or foil the whole lure, which would be a bit tricky. Also, I ended up with a slight line at the edges of the foil. I need to get better at pressing it out. I took aluminum ducting tape and pressed it against a wire mesh to get the pattern. Then carefully put it onto the lure. Then epoxied over it and painted. Also realized I need more transparent paints. They are so awesome for control. I like the pearls but they cover everything. So thy are kinda useless over foil. I liked how the blue "Cisco" colour turned out. Transparent blue and purple on the sides. The perch one has foil under it, but not using transparent paints kinda covers it up. The walleye colour one has a real nice shine in the light. The other pictures is how it is first installed on the lure and some practice pieces on paper Let me know what you guys think, or what else I could do! Love the site. This has been my inspiration to build lures!

Plastic milk jug. Worked for me pretty good.

I see that guys stuff on instagram. Looks amazing. I will probably try to get my next batch from him. I have only ever ordered one time from Lisa and ed's eyes they were good! http://lisaandedseyes.ipage.com/lure_eyes.htm

The polycarbonate I get was from a plastic distribution company, Johnston Plastics. They make all kinds of stuff out of lexan (which is the brand name, I think I ended up with makralon). So I talked to some guy behind the counter and asked if they have any small cut off pieces I could buy. After some explaining about what I needed, he said you got cash? haha perfect. Went to the back and just like I thought they had a huge rack of all different smaller pieces from paper thin to 1" thick. Found a few 2 foot by 1 foot pieces and gave the guy ten bucks. I think this is mostly garbage for the company. I'm sure you could find a similar company wherever you are from! Not sure how everyone else gets it.

Ok thanks guys. I can do it! Lol. Let you know how it goes.

Thanks guys. I've only made a hand full of lures. Love doing it. I'm just getting into it. Almost have to talk me off the ledge with this envirotex. It sure looks great when it works but I've probably done about 10 applications with over half having some issue. I think I'm narrowing it down now. This last one was just a bit too warm, and too much on the lure and probably a bit overuse of the torch I use to zap bubbles. I've done it once before way too much and it pretty much liquified the etex and it started dropping off lol. I will continue to be diligent about cleanliness and such. Just need to dial in the amounts. Thanks guys. I'll let you know how the next batch goes. I'm on the finishing coats now. No room for error!

Thanks dale. I just let the etex bottles warm up in hot tap water. The result was noticibly more runny then before when I just did it at room temp. It did assist in getting rid of all bubbles. I warmed it up in hot tap water. Then mixed equal parts by volume ( I even rigged syringes up to make it accurate). Mixed for five minutes. Let it sit for another five. Then brushed it on. And left them on the turner. I checked on then after 30 min and I could see the etex was sagging. Not sure why. I think I just put it on a bit thick and let the bottles get too warm. Not sure.

Had to go back and read this all again. Have still been having envirotex issues. So frustrating. It's one thing to have a bit of fish eye to sand off on the first layers under the paint. But now I just finished a painted lure with etex and it was running like crazy. Perhaps I over compensated for the cooler basement room and heated it up too much with hot water perhaps I just did to thick of a coat. Sure is frustrating. Seems like there is always something wrong.

I was just experimenting with the same thing. Watched a Paul Adams video. And I replicated kinda what he did. Clamped two 2x4's together and used a Forstner bit to drill in the joint. Poured lead in the holes. Then unclamp and pop the little cylinders out. Worked pretty good. A hard wood might work better. A bit of the lead seeped out. I'm curious what other guys do as well.

I use the testers airbrush paint from Michaels. Kinda nice because it's all ready to paint. I haven't done much but I haven't needed to thin it out at all. Minimal colour selection compared to createx but so far so good.

This is a fantastic resource and I love reading all the old posts. I find searching google with the words tackle underground works best too. I still don't quite know how the guys who make the headlocks get this level of sparkle on just the sides. Great baits. I will continue to explore and try my options. Love this hobby I'm getting into. Also just added a 1957 de Walt radial arm saw. So awesome!

Got it, thanks BobP. I know so much has been written about the subject (and I'm way off topic of sparkle paint already), but when you start mixing it, everything I remember reading goes out the window, like I start to panic with the ticking clock haha. Overall they are turning out good. I will get some denatured alcohol and apply.

Gliders - what do you think caused my fish eye? Happened on both the baits I was turning. Large crankbaits. Shop was cooler. They were on a turner. Could it have been the spot when the shaft of my turner ( a BBQ roterserie) kinda falls over? Or just not a clean bait beforehand? Envirotex has an unreal finish but sure is frustrating. I'm moving that process into a basement room to control dust and temp from now on.

Awesome bob. May try that method with the cheap glitter paint. That would be easy. Then airbrush some black tiger stripes on it. With a coat or two of envirotex. Gliders - I built a lure turner last year for envirotex application. Works good. I still just had some fish eyes but I think I put it on way to thick. Still perfecting that.

Appreciate the responses! I think I will attempt to paint the lure in gold/yellow. Then add a bunch of glitter to my first epoxy coat. Being a large musky bait. I usually add a bunch of coats anyway. But I may also try other methods, so many things to try so little time.

Just curious, how do you get paint jobs where the paint is completely evenly covered in sparkle/glitter? Is it sprayed on through the airbrush? Or nail polish? Or added to the epoxy finish? i want to replicate this believer given to me by a musky fishing legend!! Also, how do you reprint a different believer? Just sand, prime, paint then epoxy?

This has been a very useful topic for me as well, good work everyone. Mark, if you don't mind me asking, how do you cut your slots in the your bait? I run my bait through a table saw when the lure is still in a square block, but it's tricky to line it up perfectly straight, maybe I just need a better table saw... the epoxy i filled most of the slot with seems to be working very well. Just top up the rest with bondo and it's ready for primer and envirotex.

First of all, that is an awesome looking lure! As far as bondo, I'll have to second what Mark P said. From what I've read, there are not many substances that are rated as a structural gap filler except epoxy. The only thing is, bondo is holding half of the old cars on the road together, so you would think it would last. I'm curious to know what you find. I fill the slot in my baits with a bit of epoxy then finish the top bit with bondo. I just did two tonight using ecopoxy, something I've never tried (I'll let you know how it goes) As far as the bondo in the slot, is it possible that it never filled in the entire slot all the way to the bottom. I know the very first lure I did I tried bondo and I made a huge mess trying to force it down into the slot. It was not viscous enough to flow into the slot around the wire. Perhaps that allowed moisture in somehow? I like the idea of that epoxy putty BobP. That is something I will have to look into some more.