bluetickhound

Thanks for the tip JayBee!

Coat 3 made things no better or worse... I gotta say though, i kinda like the effect and will fish the lure to see if the bass agree! I'll post a picture later on tonight. I will say though, that from now on i'll stick to one dip...

I know... I KNOW! Not another DN thread... I looked in the search function and didnt see a specific answer to this so i'm appealing once agin to y'all. I dipped coat 1 and it went great. Looked good, but too thin. I waited the reccommended 5 hours, dipped again and coat 1 immediatetly started wrinkling underneath!! What gives? In alk honesty, its actually a kinda cool effect and after letting coat 2 dry overnight i dipped again this morning to see what would happen. I had to leave the house for work right after so i have no idea what coat 3 is diing right now. When i get home I'll report back, but what went wrong? Did i not wait long enough between dips? Karl

No, it's thru wired but the way you have to do it to get the cup washers and blade on is a little tricky. Next one i make i'll post a picture of how i'm doing it.

Hers a shot of the Waddle Bat copy with the fish I caught on it....Sorry it's sideways but it's in the trophy room gallery right side up!

Ditto on the polytranspar! Its the best basecoat i have tried yet by a wide margin.

Somebody recently mentioned the mosquito netting in the camping section at Walmart. I picked some up to try and it really works great for me!

Waddle bat #2 is a lot better. I sealed the nudie and took it out swimming this morning. Result: caught a 2 pound bass! The action is pretty good but I still need to fiddle with the bill diameter a little and definitely the blade needs some adjustment but I'm on the right track!! I'm fairly new to all this but catching a fish on an unpainted lure is kinda cool!!

I havent used the Vendetta series rods but i have three of the Veritas rods and i LOVE 'em!!! I have two casting rods (one 6'6" w/ microguides and one 7' with regular guides) and a 7'6" spinning rod i use with the nanofil line for finesse type fishing. Very happy with all of 'em and if the Vendetta is anything like the Veritas i'd definitely go with the Garcia...

Exactly why i do not, and will not ever become a tournament fisherman. B.A.S.S. seems to talk ouy of both sides of their mouth on this issue... On the one hand, they're all about "protecting the resource" yet every issue of Bassmaster or Bass Times or whatever...always has at least one or two obligatory pictures of some elite series guy holding a fish up over his head... If folks knew how many of these fish were either dead or dying just hours after the cameras were off and the fans were out of the arena it would (or at least should...) turn their stomachs. I wish, just ONCE, one of the high profile guys would refuse to do this and speak out against it...

Yep! That's none other than Smokey himself! Hope we don't have to sic him on Dooley by Octobrer.... I thin with distilled water and nothing else. I tried the future wax formula and didn't like it at all. A word to the wise though... If you use windex, either to thin or for cleanup, make sure its the ammonia free windex!

With Createx, it depends.... Some colors (mostly the translucents, in my experience) spray just fine without thinning and others (the opaque colors, generally speaking...) benefit from it. I used to run my pressure a little on the high side but i have come to see that lower pressures make my AB much happier.... I run at around 10psi spraying pressure.

Ok troops! I am ready to go out on the limb and reccommend ACC as a good alternative to the big 3 of topcoats, thise being D2T, etex and DN S81. I would encourage you to try dipping the ACC (provided you have several lures you wish to topcoat at one sitting as this will be a fairly expensive proposition!!) as i feel i get better coverage than with brushing. Brushing is very much viable but it can be a little tricky. As i have previously said, have the lure(s) ready to go on the turner because ACC is fairly thin and will flow for a while after application...again, as a medium for making your own eyes (or fake ice cubes to freak your wife/kids/friends out with!!!) it is absolutely perfect, just know going in that as a topcoat there is a slight learning curve. BTH P.S. Forgot to mention... No subequent problems with second coats... Not sure what the problem was the first time that happened, but surface contamination was most likely the culprit...

I love the ACC for making my lure eyes and to be honest with you, i really like it as a topcoat. I have been hesitant to really go ahead and advise folks to use it as i sure don't want to recommend a product that i have only been testing for a couple of months but i'm about ready to go out on that limb. It hasn't let me down at all and i actually like it over D2T. Speaking of topcoats, I just got some Dick Nite S81 yesterday but its been raining around here and I'm afraid to open the can!!

I'm working on duping a waddle bat also... Try #1 wasn't a complete bust but it wasn't really right either. Working on take 2 now. Im making my own blades. Looking at the Ichiban tackle website will give you a good look at how the 'bats are set up. It appears in several of the pictures that the blade has a very gentle upsweep... If i'm correct i think i'll have it right next time.

This is the stuff i'm talking about... http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/amazing-mold-putty-698290/ Of course, im assuming you are making molds... You know what they say about assuming stuff though....

Where are you looking at Hobby Lobby? I think you'll find it where the modeling clay and acrylic resins are... Thats the aisle where i get my ACC and iirc there is a two part mold making kit right next to it... ACC, if you are unfamiliar, is Amazing Clear Cast, a product i have been experimenting with as a topcoat. So far it has been a really good alternative to D2T. There is a thread about it in this forum.

It did turn out good. I know with laquer paints i used to use an intercoat clear between layers on work like this. I dont know if it can be done with acrylics, although i dont see any reason it wouldn't...

Nice work! How long did it take to hammer out the digital camo pattern?

As an aside, Ben... I found out recently that I'm a relative of Sam Rayburn on my mothers side... Her maiden name is Rayburn and her great uncle is none other than Sam...

I have had good luck just printing out a word document with my name in a font/size that i like and printing that out onto the Testors decal paper. Spray some fixative on it and presto !! Hundreds of "signatures" that will never run!! I still hand number each lure but i cut enough off of the decal sheet to cover that also and haven't had any problems. I would imagine if you were just bent on hand signing also, just spraying some fixative on a blank sheet would give you a whole sheets worth that you could use to cover your signature before clearcoating...

Yup!! I have learned that if i see something that looks like it'd work for luremaking the guys here have probably already tried it and can give you the straight dope on whether or not it works. No telling how much $$$ folks like Ben, Mark and others here have saved me!!

I saw where LPO has it for $40... That'd still buy a lot of calligraphy pens!!!