Detail Question

[smbasser]

I have an Iwata Revolution and a small ninja jet compressor that i bought locally and just beginning to paint. I'm having a hard time with putting detail on my lures. I can spray them with a basecoat and then come over the top with the body colors and then i run into problems. I'm using C-tex paint but can't seem to get fine details. LIke a craw pattern for instance, i spray the entire lure white using a krylon out of the can white primer then go back over the lure with a light tan. I then use a darker brown for the top of the crawdad and the paint wants to bead up and then run if i get the gun too close or if i'm too far away it covers more of the bait than i want too. Am i doing something wrong? the ninja compressor will only go up to about 18 psi if i'm not mistaken. Am i putting too much water in my paint? I'm also trying to get the brown to be not so dark, the paint i'm using is the transparent brown but it doesn't seem too transparent to me. i've attached one of my wiggle warts that i'm fairly pleased with but that's about 1 in 10. Boy i need to learn some patience to do this airbrushing stuff

[Musky Glenn]

I'm by no means a good painter, but if you can get one lure right out of ten, then your equipment is ok, it will do the job because it did do the job. Paint thickness, air pressure, distance from the lure with the air brush, speed of travel with the air brush all can change instantly from one lure to the next or half way down a lure. My guess is you just need more practice to stabilize all the little things that make a big difference.

I would also like to add, that is one more great looking paint job. Musky Glenn

[bassnbrad]

Like Mr. Glenn said, its basically learning your gun and paint consistencies. As stupid as this may sound, this is a learning technique that may help. Cut out a 12"x12" piece of cardboard and base coat one side. Then with a opposing color (black on white or white on black...) write your name in cursive and print 5-10 times each getting smaller as you move down the board. Play with the paint consistencies and pressure as you go. Once you have the names all written go back and shade them with different colors. The beading up and running sounds like you are putting on too much paint at once or your paint is to wet. If you do not have a "Dryer Filter" you may want to consider one. Also instead of painting try shading, in other words spray light coats drying/flashing between coats. Hope this helps some.

That is a purty dad btw...

[Big Bass Man]

A little tip would be to not start out painting with some tough patterns. As Brad said, it takes time to fully learn your airbrush. Start out with some fairly easy patterns until you can paint them without any overspray. Then move up a little at a time on tougher patterns, as you learn to control your gun. You will get a lot less frustraited by doing this.

Your craw looks great to me also!!

Patrick

[crankpaint]

you might also have some oil coming out of the paint or on your hands getting on the bait as you tape the bill or handle it try washing the bait with hot water before you paint it, i have had that happen on new baits it might be the release agent the manufactor uses? and blow dry it before you paint anything

[SMALLIEHUNTER]

Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice! It's just like fishing nothing replaces time on the water! The longer that airbrush is in you hand the better you will get! Try turning down the air pressure a little, remove the needle cap for more detail. I hope this will help.

And have fun.

[Brent R]

Go buy some pvc pipe its cheap and you practice till the cows come home......Once you have practiced on the whole pipe...just use white spray paint to paint the pipe.....and start all over again.....start out using 2 inch pipe that way when you get better you can go to 3/4 inch pipe.....this way you don't mess up your lures....But your craw pattern look great to me.....so you may not even need to do this.....good luck......

[saltshaker]

This is great info by everybody. I seem to have very little confidence when detailing my foto baits and my patience (which I thought I had) is even wearing thin. The OP's craw crank looks good to me. I'd settle for 1 of those out of 25.

[EdL]

To help me get started with airbrushing I took a 6 hour intro to airbrushing class. The instructor told us he finds that it takes an average of 40 hours of airbrushing to get to the point of doing detail work proficiently. So as the guys are saying it takes practice. But don't give up. Kind of like learning to ride a bicycle. Its rough to fall down and get scraped but once learned you can go places with a smile on your face. I'm still learning but its get better the more I use the airbrush.

[drycreek]

Try cutting some stencils ..will help get a good hard edge and be able to fade off the other side. I make mine out of o .020" pvc, its flexible enough to fit around the bait and will work for both sides.

[sambennett]

It takes time. Keep it up. BTW - that craw pattern on a Wiggle Wort kills the smallies in the spring out on my river. Love those things.

When I first got my brush I messed around with it a bunch with a real bait. Different pressure, different viscosity, taking the cap off, etc. I suggest the real bait method because I don't personally think you get as much out of painting on cardboard or even PVC. Naturally, your results may vary.

I wouldn't necessarily say you're getting a bad result for a beginner attempting a fairly detailed pattern. I think I rinsed off the same bait and repainted it about 20 times before I was happy with it when I first started. I still rinse a fair number of baits when trying to settle on a new design. That's the nice thing about waterbased paint.

[smbasser]

thanks for all the info. I sat down last night and knocked some new colors out and after about 4 hours of painting i could tell things were getting a little easier. ya'll are a big help and again, appreciate all the feedback