Canga~

all of the companies that make pigment make many purple colors, like stated above most arent called just purple. up to you which you want to use!

i use cooking spray on my rods (both core shot and tube molds) it works great, super cheap and lasts a long time. i just spray it every time i inject, on a paper towel or hand towel, then roll the rods around to make sure they are lubed

add a drop or 2 of white to each to opaque and brighten them up a bit

your most common places are going to be dead on plastix, bait plastics and calhoun. i personally use bait plastics 242 and love it, and i have used calhoun in the past and it was very good too. i havent used dead on but hear good things about it (some bad too!) best bet is to get/buy a sample from each and choose what sorks best for you. watch worlds worst fishing on youtube, chris has many videos on making plastics, from the beginner to the advanced.

fat guys fishing just came out with a 7" fatty mold yesterday, not sure if its on their site yet. i have a few of the smaller sizes and love them, not sure its what you are looking for but worth a shot!

it just looks like a not too opaque chartreuse with black flake that gets taken over by the green pumpkin side somewhat.

basstackle makes a good one, i think they are 2.75 and 3.75. a little thicker than the keitech though. fat guys makes the classic swim and shiner in a couple sizes. doit makes a new "essential xl" the slick shiner, its 3.5

https://www.calhounsoftplastic.com/#/ calhoun is being distributed by someone on the many facebook soft plastics groups now. i havent used it yet (happy with bait plastics) but it gets good reviews on the groups and the pics show it to be nice and clear.

i have a bunch of fat guys molds, they make a quality product. also respond to questions through their facebook messenger very quickly.they are usually the first place i look for a new mold.

basstackle seems to get (and sell out) injectors in quite often, i would wait till they have them in stock and get the best.

good luck with slowing down, the more you get and the better you get, the more and more you want! doit molds are great for the price but once you get into cnc molds there is much better out there, its an addicting hobby to say the least but very rewarding!

there is a few buy/sell/trade and general knowledgeable groups on facebook related to soft plastics as well, lots of good info scrolling through them as well as color ideas and some recipes etc. there is a supplier of calhoun plastic on there too. les gave some great info. i personally use bait plastics plastisol, mostly lureworks for liquid color and glitter, and some various mica powders (ebay, hobby lobby and the bait making sellers). basstackle has the best injectors when they have them in stock, hands down.

closest to a fat impact you will find is the 607 from bts, but at 350 for 4 cavities is very spendy. check out the rip from fat guys fishing, its slimmer than the doit ripper and comes in top inject and many more cavities, and more sizes than the bts!

the only one milled top/bottom are from bts and while im sure they are awesome, for the price ($350 for 4 cavities) you would be better off getting a dual injector and another mold with top injection ports. that being said i still have to talk myself out of that bts mold every now and then!

i have 15ish molds from fat guys, they make a quality product, and are always adding to their aresnal. make sure you are aware of the lead times (at the top of their page) they just got done with a big black friday sale and are likely swamped. my lasat order (during their haloween sale) took a little over a month to get. i really like that a lot of their molds are available with more cavities, means im not pouring for too long when i do, and not having to buy as many multiples of the same mold to make a decent ammount!

i dont know about matching the yamamoto watermelon, but i use mostly lureworks colorants. have a couple from mf, lurecraft, doit (the x2 junebug is my favorite!) and bait plastics, but i always go back to lureworks.

I oil my rings with the injector oil that comes with basstackle injectors before every use and as needed during use.

listen to your gut on the quality injector, i have one and once it got the correct orings (took over a year to get them from the company) it works great. i wont be buying another from them, the customer service isnt what it should be. i have a 10oz basstackle single, a 6oz basstackle dual and a 3oz basstackle triple. they are worth the price, though the triple is super tight, even using the 3ozers in my dual setup, hoping with more use it will loosen some, as my single and dual are easy to use and super smooth. make sure you mix mix mix that dead on!

i have many molds from fat guys, started ordering before they had a working website, through facebook, and never had any issues. ,olds are very high quality, well vented, and shoot great. i have the 3 and 3.5" slim rip, 2.8, 3.3 and 3.8" ba shad, 2.5 and 3.5" flicker fluke. will be getting more at some point for sure! they also run sales around most holidays, and recently started running a "golden ticket" promotion, they always send a sticker with your order, if its a gold sticker you win a free mold. on true custom molds your best bet is message them through their facebook page, they are pretty quick to respond, they will also make different sizes of molds they already offer if they dont offer it. im probabaly going to get them to make a 3" version of the flicker fluke at some point, and a 4" slim rip.

Bait plastics quality is good, never used mf before but BP is some damn good stuff!

a lot of people love dead on so im sure it will be ok if done properly, i tried bait plastics before DO when baitjunkys stopped being available, and didnt see a reason to try anything else. at that time the prices were similar with shipping and everything, bait plastics free shipping is a pretty new thing. the groups on facebook are pretty evenly split between DO and BP, with a few using lurecraft, lureworks and MF search facebook for the soft bait making groups, if you havent already (there is a few of them), tons of good information in there and most people are willing to help and pretty active in the groups.

i havent used DO, but make sure you mix it well (when you think its mixed enough, mix more) and make absolute sure it gets over 350 on initial heat, probably 360 to be sure. it *should* come out fine, most of the issues i have read about through facebook groupls involves those 2 steps not being followed. that being said bait plastics new 242 is the best i have used (doit essential (JUNK!!!) , baitjunkys medium (good stuff!), bait plastics old BJ blend 200 (was ok) , bait plastics 212 (good stuff!) and now 242.

I haven’t used dead on, I settled on bait plastics. But I have used the doit essentials and it’s garbage, yellowed super easy, bubbles like crazy, and the finished baits got super oily after a little while (I didn’t like that). bait plastics is awesome, stays true to color after many reheats, barely any bubbles, and it’s cheap(ish). Haven’t tried their colors, most of what in use is from Lureworks

Water, at the very least gets moisture in the plastic causing mass bubbles, at worst, in hot plastic, the rapid boiling of the water could cause a small explosion sending molten plastic flying (not as bad as into hot lead, but still bad!!) as for micas, I think they are pretty much all useable. I have used some powder pigments that didn’t mix into the plastic but no other adverse affects. pearl vs liquid, it’s pretty much what you said. Most pearl/mica has the pearlized effect. There are some matte finish powders that won’t give that, and look similar to a liquid. I also haven’t had any micas bleed, they stay pretty colorfast. So for certain colors (red being notorious for bleeding even in non-bleed) it works better imo.

The powders (pearl x) from hobby lobby work great, I don’t think I would use any “dyes” from there due to not really knowing what’s in them. If they were water based it would be very bad. For liquid colorants I stick to the bait making sites. i use a lot of mica powders meant for automotive paint, there is a ton on eBay and many other sites. Also the ones meant for makeup and candle making work well.