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Yeah unless you are doing commercial production.. RTV Silicone will work just fine. Check out SmoothOn they make several different durometer 2 part silicones that would work great for your molds.

I would agree with this for the most part and it's the same direction I would take after pouring for 8 years. The only thing I would add to it is that our sense of odor can likely get dulled with a lot of repeated use. Taking a break from it probably restores it. What most don't understand, and I don't even think doctors understand is that the chemicals (which enter via fumes as Mark said, as well as through the skin) won't cause just one specific disease. It can cause a multitude of disease and it can be different in every person. It likely won't show up as some lung disease but could be a factor in accelerating just about any disease. Not saying this to be a fear monger, but help educate and nudge a few into doing it right. Proper ventilation and using gloves.. even after it's cured is the key to keeping it out of the body.

I agree with Chris, that's a great technique and it will look much better in the resin compared to in the paint. hobby glitter is fine. on the Glitters I've never had a problem with any of them with any clear coats. The only problems is with hot plastisol and you have to use special high temp glitters there.

thanks for all the input guys!

has Devcon 2T gotten better on yellowing in sunlight? are there any UV clears that have the adhesion that teh epoxies have?

What are you guys finding to be the most durabe top coat? (and clear non yellowing)? I love KBS but something in my paint or top coat is 'bubbling' when using scented oils. Top coat looks great after hang and dry, but after using it a couple times the scent or the carrier is causing the KBS and the paint to bubble up... the scent oil or the carrier in the scent is basically making the KBS 'bubble' / get soft ... like a paint remover would. Anyway, I'm looking to try something else but my fish have teeth and I use sharpest hooks I can get. What's the hardest and clearest now that UV and other Epoxy coatings have been out a while?

it's nitrogen... I use a mason jar and it's been phenomenal even without the blox.

I may try this just to see if alcohol would soften it. I don't care about dull because I could always shoot it with clear SB or dip it. But I think I could also just spray over it like you both mention.

sounds like a good idea, thanks

Anyone ever try to remove paints from painted soft plastics? Any luck at all? Sometimes I have some colorations that I just don't like and want to change them so if anyone has any idea how to remove coatings like this I'd love to hear it. I'm not even sure how all of them are put on.. I think some are powders that are then heated, I don't think those will come off at all. I'm hoping there are maybe some options for the other types of coatings like dips, sb (solvent based) coats, or vpi coats or what ever else is used to paint soft plastics.. anyone have any ideas. mainly I'm trying to clean up some big musky baits that are $35 each, LOL..

I've used epoxy over different materials and it worked great

broken for me...

great post. I prototyped a soft plastic over 7 years until I finalized it. About year 5, I was dating a health nut and she had me question the fumes and liquids. Originally I had watched a very popular well known lure maker say the fumes were completely safe.. whatever, or at least I know now. I took a test to see how much plasticizer were in my body from skin contact and fumes. Of those that have ever taken the blood test to measure this, I scored in the 93 percentile. That means that I was within the 93% in highest accumulation of plasticizer in blood compared to everyone that's been tested. I started detoxing immediately. At some point I'll retake the blood test. I do have some minor health affects from it but it will probably be more of a long term test to see what's really happened or not. Plasticizers are endocrine disrupters so it could really show up as anything, not just cancer although cancer is an possibility. I will say that I lost 15 lbs during the time I was working with the plastic weekly, and since I detoxed I was able to put 10lbs back on. Do I still work with baits, yes, but I adhere to similar practices above.

What's the word on the hardest coating. Our saltwater fish have more pointy teeth and also I'm finding the super sharp trebbles are penetrating clear coats and once that happens it seems the clears are flaking and braking off which means they have low adhesion qualities.. these are mostly commercially available lure manufactures products. Whats the hardest clear with the best adhesive qualities? ppg auto clear (shop line 2 part clear coat) vs Diamond coat vs UV Cure Which has the best adhesion to the paint? least chipping and flaking from the hooks and teethe? Diamond coat states very flexible.. but is it also chip and tear resistant after it's penetrated with a hook point or teeth?

Could a heat gun be used to heat a large wood lure hot enough. I'm talking Musky Baits... 2inch diameter, then press hot rubber pad to lure with foil... How would you do larger diameter plugs?

any idea how hard emanmel spray paint is compared to automotive. Id assume its not as good a bond / not as hard. yes, with having to use a final topcoat I used to think I could get away with using the acrylics but the bond is so weak that once the topcoat gets punctured then the topcoat starts flaking off. we're using super sharp hooks and our trout and reds do tear up the lures paint jobs pretty well. Mirrolure uses some type of baked on two part paint. It may be an epoxy type two part paint.. I'd love to figure out how they are doing that.. their lures stand up to the punishment the best. I've painted with high end two part epoxy boat paint and it's hard as ***** but I'd only shoot that through an extermal mix airbrush.. it's nasty nasty stuff but super tough. and it's expensive too so I think that would be overkill... but I've found automotive paint in small quantities .. touch up paint.. not sure if that's the same quality as the good stuff the body shops are painting with though. I guess we'll see. I'll try to do some test ... enamel vs automotive vs others... but it will take a while.

Thank you all for the input... I'm strictly doing this for fun.. it takes my mind of the fishing bisness...LOL. based on the feedback I went with an Iwata HP B.. .2needle. I can use the old Badger for broader strokes and use the Iwata for finer strokes. I'll look into the Wicked and Illustration paints next. Thank you all.

Don't overlook reading this thread as well

thanks bob, spot on to what I was thinking for what my needs would be.. I'll look at the .2 tips Anyone use a Grex ?

Ok, thanks Cliff. I appreciate the amount of detail you put into the answer. time to buy something now. LOL

I'm only making soft plastics.. actually the painting of lures is just a hobby of mine. There's several guys already in the customer lure painting market and that's way to labor intensive for me. As far as my epoxy top coat holding up.. it was devcon 2t. Over time it yellowed and we fish with a lot of white and bone so that's not too great. As for hardness it's very hard but like I said, my subcoats failed so with trout teeth and sharp as trebbles they will eventually chip and crack and havn't lasted too long. Some of the custom paint guys are using Automotive clear and I can tell it's hard enough. But I havn't liked their work so far ... so I figure I'll do my own or for a friend or two, and some muskie baits for the fall as well.

Thanks Cliffs, any other recommendations on better quality air brush? I know everyone hates to give away their secret weapon and all but would love to see some other ideas.

Is anyone painting with automotive paint? How hard is some of the other paints like Etex compared to automotive paint? Seems I've always used paints that weren't very hard and only relied on the exterior coating for protecting the paint job.. why not paint with harder paints? Our saltwater fish do a lot of damage and also I've found the extra sharp hooks chip and flake the exterior and next thing your know it starts to break and flake off because theres no strength (bond) of the paint that I used and after the exterior chips or flakes it starts to come off... So i'm looking for harder and better bonding paint, what do ya'll think are the best bonding and hardest paints?

What type of fish are you trying to catch may be a better way to look at this.. or are you trying to gear up for casting a pounder and having something go wrong. Even some of the largest freshwater and inshore saltwater fish put less than 10lbs of force on a drag system.. until you start getting into 40lb striped bass or Red Drum and some pelagic species like King mackeral and tuna. Even the extremely sought after spotted sea trout a true 9-10 lb monster only exerts about 12-15 lbs of drag, and the drag is set of less so the line doesn't break.

What are ya'll using for air brushes. I've been using a Badger 150 and would like to get something better to do finer work.