SVT-Power

Like mentioned above, there are so many options that it's hard to narrow down 8-12 colors to start with. I'll simplify as much as possible. You need 2 base coat primers. Light and dark. I use auto air autoborne sealer white and black. The overall base color will determine which I will use to prime my bait with. Then you will want transparents, opaques and pearls/flakes. You will need bright fluorescent colors, earth tones and good old white and black (non sealer). As mentioned above, some of my patterns will have between 10-25 different colors used in a variety of ways. Mixing and layering colors can turn 2 bottles of paint into a dozen different colors. I'll try and make a list of colors I have to have. But this is just my opinion. Sealer white Sealer black Opaque white Opaque black Fluorescent yellow Fluorescent orange Brown Green Blue Pearl gold Pearl white Purple With those colors, you can get numerous different colors by mixing or layering. For example, mix black with Pearl white to make Pearl silver. Mix blue with Pearl white for Pearl blue and so on. This is really hard lol. I have about every color made in water based and solvents. Plus dry pearls and flakes along with specialty paints like chrome. Hope this helps rather than confuses you. But I've been at this since the late 90's and I'm still adding new brands and colors every week. You will build up a pile of colors over time if you stick with it good luck.

If I have an eye that doesn't want to stick, I squeeze a tiny amount of old fashioned super glue out and dab the tip of the toothpick into it and then make a small dot, very small...in the eye slot and put the eye on. I know guys that put it on the eye but sometimes you will see where their finger touched the glue and hit the outside of the eye. But I have only had to do this a few times over the past 17 years. I've bought eyes from about every source out there and some just don't stick well.

I use to paint a lot of green pumpkin based baits when I used Createx. I mixed Ultra Marine Blue and fluorescent chartreuse. Problem was that when I sprayed it over a white base, like most greens...it got brighter. I didn't like the results so I played around and started misting ultra marine blue over a white base and then spray over the bait again with chart. You will see it start turning green and just keep spraying light coats until you see that green pumpkin color appear. If I want a green pumpkin like detail color, I use Wicked Moss green. It's a great color.

Hey Mitch. If you're just starting out, I would recommend Wicked paints and Auto Air. They are waterbased paints and work well in airbrushes. I started out back in the 90's with Createx, but the AA and Wicked lines are much better spraying and offer tons of options with colors. I use a lot of solvent paints these days but I still use a good bit of the two brands mentioned above. I use the Autoborne sealer from AA as my primer coat. It has great adhesion to plastics and sealed wood. I use it with all paints from solvents to waterbased. Just browse Coast Airbrush and look at the choices these brands offer. Createx (Craig Kennedy) own all of these brands. Good luck.

The hardest for me is a realistic Crappie. A lot of painters share my frustration with that color scheme. There's just something about the green that's near impossible to get right. It always looks toyish or more of a baby bass color. My most recent crappie for a customer didn't look right to me, but He loved it and that's what matters. I kept it simple and used black,white,pearl white and gold pearls on fins, gill area and misted it on the back.

For plastic/factory wood baits, I tape the bill and scuff the whole bait with red scotchbrite. I then prime the bait with Auto Air base sealer white or black depending on the color I'm painting the bait. Don't try and spray a heavy coat that completely covers the existing paint or makes a transparent bait opaque. Spray the bait in multiple light coats with curing inbetween. If you're using waterbased paint, you don't want to see any shine. It should look soft and powdery. This will give you good adhesion to the lure and then you have a solid base to start spraying colors. As far as clear coat, there are numerous options. Plenty of posts on here about that. This is just the way I do my baits. It's worked for me for over a decade. Try different suggestions that are posted until you find what works best for you.