Opaque White As Primer?

[bohmer99]

Lures are being sealed overnight, but I am wondering what or if I should use primer for paint at all. At first i was going to paint over the D2T/ and wood finish. But after watching videos and looking on here a lot of people mention priming the bait. Do i need to do this? and if so will creator's opaque white do the trick to give me a clean slate to start with or is the D2T finish enough?

[BobP]

There's a lot of confusion about this because guys sometimes sling around words like primer, basecoat, and undercoat interchangeably.  Primers are coatings that adhere to a surface and to the paint that is put over them. Adhesion is their function.  A basecoat usually refers to a color basecoat, which is a solid color put on a lure to hide underlying wood grain or internal plastic bait features so that the main colors that follow it will look uniform.  An undercoat may mean anything but when I use it, I mean a coating on raw wood that waterproofs it and prevents wood grain from rising when later hit with water based paint.

 

When I finish a wood bait, I undercoat it with epoxy, then lightly sand the epoxy to promote paint adhesion.  Then I color basecoat the bait, usually with heavily pigmented white paint, then I shoot my colors.  When I paint a plastic bait, I lightly sand the plastic to promote adhesion and then follow with the basecoat and color.

 

I don't use a primer or adhesion promoter.  Some guys like to use an aerosol adhesion promoter on plastic baits before they begin painting them.  The bottom line is that you want a durable finish on your crankbait.  How to get there can take several directions.  And you need to worry about what coatings you mix on a bait.  Some work well together, some refuse to work at all.  Coatings with solvent in them can react badly with other coatings containing solvent, just depending on the particular solvents and how you apply and dry the coatings.

Edited May 15, 2015 by BobP

[RayburnGuy]

Good explanation Bob. You nailed it.

 

Ben

[crab05]

I use white opaque createx as base coat unless I'm painting a ghost or holographic bait.

[BobP]

The best white color basecoat I've ever used is Polytranspar Superhide White.  Has lots of pigment to hide quickly, dries fast and is harder than typical acrylic latex paint (which it is).  A lot of taxidermy paint companies carry a white paint designed for color basecoating. Even cheap hobby paint like Apple Barrel White has lots of pigment and can be used for basecoating - but it has a rougher surface texture than airbrush paint and like any hobby paint, it can be a problem to shoot through many airbrushes.  Nothing wrong with Createx White - but compared to the alternatives, it doesn't cover grain as quickly.

[MarkSpolarich]

The best white color basecoat I've ever used is Polytranspar Superhide White.  Has lots of pigment to hide quickly, dries fast and is harder than typical acrylic latex paint (which it is).  A lot of taxidermy paint companies carry a white paint designed for color basecoating. Even cheap hobby paint like Apple Barrel White has lots of pigment and can be used for basecoating - but it has a rougher surface texture than airbrush paint and like any hobby paint, it can be a problem to shoot through many airbrushes.  Nothing wrong with Createx White - but compared to the alternatives, it doesn't cover grain as quickly.

Thanks Bob!!!