Help With Scale Netting

[LETerDIG]

Ok so I am fairly new to painting crankbaits. I do fine with everything but the netting. I have both coarse and fine from barlows. The big coarse is way to big for my desire. The fine seems to give me to biggest problem. My problem is that it comes out much to distorted. I am using Createx paint. The area (fine lines) between the scales always seem to get filled in. I have it stretched and help great with alligator clips. Am i spraying to much @ one time? any information would be helpful.

I have an Iwatta eclipse. the 199$? model.

What PSI should I have my tank set at for a .5 needle?

Any info would be great!Thanks

[Tree_Fish]

Change to a .3 and on the netting I find that several light coats with heat sets between coats produces the best scaling effect. As far as psi I usually shoot around 20-30, just play with it until you get a light consistent coat

[mark poulson]

Change to a .3 and on the netting I find that several light coats with heat sets between coats produces the best scaling effect. As far as psi I usually shoot around 20-30, just play with it until you get a light consistent coat

Mindhunter is right.

I've been painting baits for a few years, and scale cloth is still a problem for me, too.

I wish I could find a soft, flexible mesh for scaling.

I typically use tulle (wedding veil mesh) from a fabric store. The tulle is stiff at first, until it gets a coat of Createx on it that has been heat set. Then it's a little softer.

But getting it to follow the contours of a bait is always a challenge.

I've used the smaller mesh that cloves of garlic come in, and it's more flexible, and the mesh from the bath scrubbers, but it's always a challenge for me.

Multiple, thin coats, heat set, are what works the best for me, too.

[LETerDIG]

I will deff order a .3 and have to give it a try for sure! I appreciate it and will have to repost my new luck when I try!

[Musky Glenn]

If you want a soft net for scales you really should try "hair netting". They are stretchy, stay placed, and conform to any shape. They also give a nice design. Best thing I have used for small baits. Musky Glenn

[sammy01007]

I tried many of the found at home materials for creating the scale effect without much success. The major problem of scales distortion. Scales on one part of the body would not have the same shape as scales on another part cause from stretching and wrapping the material around the bait. I bought the netting from JansNet Craft for lures, and had much better luck. I never became good at painting and have not really given it much more attention. Today I have been focusing on putting more detail in my carving and applying a fine net patter underneath foil material.

Good luck with your painting, definately not as easy as it looks!!!!

[Brent R]

Might want to try washing the net materials your using....it makes it softer and you can manage it better...

[Sonny.Barile]

The only thing I could get to work is onion bag netting. I use thinned cheap craft paints in my airbrush and I do not heat set. In the beginning I was letting the paint dry and the netting would stick a little and tear at the edges of the scales. I found if I remove it just as the paint tacks then it wont smear or tear the fine paint edges. It is washable (gently) and it is virtually free. (unless you dont eat onions)

I also tried fishnet stockings which work really well and clean-up for reuse but the scales were huge.

[gunnie3035]

This has been covered a lot over the years, but the hard non-stretchy stuff is tough to use. The secret to doing scales is getting it very tight from nose to tail. In my opinion this is not possible w/o using the Popsicle sticks method and 4-5 alligator clamps per bait. I think I've tried everything at one time or another and the shower luffa still works best for me. Keep in mind each brand of luffa will vary in size so buy a couple different brands until you find the size your after. I only use a piece one time and it gets tossed.

Your scales are filling in because your netting isn't tight enough or the air pressure is up too high causing paint to blow under the netting. Also spray scales from one direction only. Avoid spraying scales straight on or from both sides with the same color. For example if your spraying gold scales over a black base spraying from nose to tail don't flip the bait and spray from tail to nose. If ya need a little more paint on the tail switch to copper or silver and lightly dust it. This will give you the raised scale look. Hope this makes sense...

[LETerDIG]

It does 100% gunnie! And thanks everyone for there advise. I have been painting off and on for a couple years now and got pretty decent with vinyl paint.. But got tired of spending countless money on thinner and if I let the thinned paint set for 4-5 days it was hard as a rock.. And same with the psint.. Very short shelf life.. and ha to wear a big respirator or I would die in 2 years I'm sure.. But it was so nice that as soon as it was sprayed it was dry in 1 minute w no heat..

So I changed to createx water based.. And love it.. Washes off well.. Mixe ls great! And can thin with windex.. But seems to want to run ad travel more so I had to learn how to spray-heat-spray-heat and so on.. But my scales are wearing me out.. My bigges problem is I can't find the perfect scale size I want. The ones from barrows.. Big is too big and the small is too small.. But tonight I went to Wally world and bought two hats ( w mesh back) and two diff pair of swimming trucks to cut up.. So we will see.. And I will b sure to pull really tight.. Maybe I'm lookin to much to try Anne get the same scale pattern as the Norman dd22s and so on.. I only paint big plugs.. Cause the bargain bins are full of crappy colors. I just bought some stencil blanks.. And gonna try the shopvac- heat gun trick to make the perfect exact grab on stencil.. Wish me luck and I hope to post back with better results!

THANKS AGAIN!