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Today i painted my very first lure and it was an old beat up Hot n Tot that i found when i was fishing and I removed the remaining paint and decided to paint it today and without having much airbrushing experience i went with a firetiger pattern and I am really happy with the way it turned out. now to add some epoxy and clear it and add some hooks but i just wanted to share my first lure with you guys! If you guys have any tips that could be useful for me with painting lures feel free to post them all help is appreciated. Thanks!

Alright, so I gave myself a challenge about a month ago to hand carve a lure from a block of wood and catch a fish on it. I initially wanted to accomplish my goal and move on to the next challenge, whatever it may be, but after finding this site and seeing just how much knowledge is available, I think I have found a new hobby in conjunction with fishing. First of all let me just say THANK YOU to all of you guys who share your experience on here. I wouldn't have known where to begin without all of the tips. As for the lure: I decided to go with a top-water popper to give a little extra excitement to the payoff if, and when, it happens. I went online to Jannsnetcraft and ordered some basswood blocks, screw eyes, split rings, and treble hooks for around $16 (including shipping). I used a store-bought lure to trace out my body design and transferred that to the block of basswood. Then, I went the old-school method of using a trusty ol' pocket knife to carve out my body and sanded it down. After reading through a few posts, I decided to use super-glue to seal the wood and this worked just fine. Here is a pre-sealing pic. Then, came the real work...... the painting. I didn't have an airbrush available so I decided to use some Testors model paint that was lying around. This worked ok, although it was pretty messy and I haven't read too many good things about using it on this forum. The painting process itself was pretty cool/challenging and I really can't believe some of the work that is on this forum. You guys are friggin amazing. I printed out a stencil to add a little detail to the sides and went with a basic frog color scheme. My detail technique needs a little work. lol. One regret I have is my crappy topcoat that I used. I got a little too antsy (typical rookie mistake) and just bought Krylex Outdoor Clear Coat spray (try not to laugh too hard). It gave the lure a decent glossy finish, but I can tell it will not be durable and probably not anywhere close to waterproof. I am going to need to put a better topcoat on the lure before putting her into action so my question is this: Can I put a 'good' topcoat on top of my crappy topcoat or do I need to try to sand it off and risk ruining my 'masterpiece' paint job. I know D2T or E-tex is preferred by most on here, but I saw another member suggest using Hard As Nails Clear also. My goal for this lure is to catch a fish and throw it in a display box in my office as a bit of a trophy. Any suggestions are very much appreciated and thanks again for all of the shared knowledge. Josh