BassAssassin85

Well the paint is all done. Was getting my handle anodized by my father in law and he accidentally melted it in his machine at work so I now need to buy a custom handle (darn snap fingers lol).

i believe you can youtube( KVD tuning a crankbait). That should show you how to do it for sure hes the man.

Thanks for all the compliments I am really having a good time doing this and being really patient i want to put it all together right now but I am giving the proper amount of time for cure purposes. Don't want to put something together you cant take apart lol. Anyhow Bassclary i used a stencil sheet i bought from hobby lobby a while ago i dont remember the thickness or anything just know it took about an hour and a half to cut them out with an xacto knife.

I would guess going about turning the eye assuming its not a balsa crank. What kind of crankbait is it?

I bought this reel last week and had a tremendous amount of boat rash. I figured since i have painted one reel and have done countless crankbaits why not try a steez lol. Anyhow i would say the boat rash consisted of about 30% paint loss on the sideplates and front plate. Time for razzle dazzle. I disassembled the reel sanded down all three plates and put a coat of primer on them. Then i mixed a special formula of pearl paint and candy paint to get the base color and used a lime green for the steez emblems. (I made a stencil for the two different sizes. NOT EASY!) Anyhow have reassembled the right side plate and that is as far as i have gotten will update with more pictures tomorrow hopefully!

any luck with your crankbait lips yet and what route have you taken?

i use the circuit board material you can get it already shaped at lureparts.com and its cheap!

super clean work nice job

i just did a few and scuffed them up with a scotch brite. cheap, time saver and results are just as good on a plastic crank anyway.

Nice job, digging all the pearls your using! they really bling with the clear on them. I have my work station in a mobile form maybe i can get a pic on here. And dang do you have every color createx makes lol. anyhow nice job! jim

sweet job keith. anyhow floridabassdude i have the hpcs and the thing is awesome. go through hobby lobby for sure with the coupon! to be honest if your really wanting to do this go out and spend about 50 bucks and get your common colors to start with. i think the kit comes with three? go get opaques white, black, transparents yellow, red, green, blue, etc. common colors. once your start to get the hang of it and start mixing colors then start getting into the pearls and the candies. pearls are the same price create wise that i know of its just different on how you can layer them and spray over them with your transparents. air pressure is all relative you will have to get a feel for what your thickness of paint is. i typically run at about 25-30. less when I'm fogging or spraying really thin paint to get a faint effect. ok enough of my lil secrets lol if you need more help shoot me a pm and ill do what i can. jim

thanks nejitterugger!

New bluegill pattern came up with today.

cant go wrong with neutral colors or shad colors they are easy. If you want to put in a scale pattern you can use a loofa.

wish i was closer to you but i'm in illinois sorry. if you do paint these however you do it if you two part epoxy after the paint then you will have a good tough finish that should last a long time.

craw color i did today im has mostly pearls and candy paints this thing blings in real life!

Teal if i knew of a way to protect my colors with using a flat finished epoxy that would be awesome but i for one dont know if it exists. if it does i would definitely be willing to give it a go for sure. brayberry i like the more sublte colors as well but for some reason the bright stuff works on my local waters so far anyway.

yeah i did forget to take a pic after that one was cleared it was pretty neat will be making another soon just so i can take a pic lol.

i have actually bought a hose from harbor frieght that fits both my neo and eclipse hp cr. i believe its 8 foot hose and multicolored. i believe it was around 8 or 9 bucks.

thanks everyone it is really fun!

i have a neo for iwata and also a iwata eclipse hp cr. I got reaallllly luck with the hp cr kit and bought it from hobby lobby for 54 bucks because the person that bought it before i did claimed it splattered when it painted. I have had problems with it but after i soaked in airbrush cleaner works great. this kit goes for about 170 but does not come with the compressor. I use an airbrush compressor from harbor freight.(<-- as everyone reads this this quivering). it was cheap and it has got the job done so far but in addition to the trap on the compressor i have bought pistol grip water traps that screw onto the airbrush as well. nothing worse than water coming through your lines!!!! Now the Neo for iwata is a good gun also for around 70 bucks at hobby lobby. It is a great gun for a beginner had no problems with it just bought this other one for the chance, price, quality and it worked out. HERE IS THE KICKER, if you go to hobby lobby online they always have a 40% off one regular priced item print it and take it with you or if you have a smart phone they will use that as well. 100 dollar airbrush becomes about 65 bucks with tax. hopes this helps, jim

Some of my custom airbrushed crankbaits. i hope to do more soon and keep working on technique.

i have been buying my blanks from dakotalakestackle.com i have bought from a few other places they may be a little cheaper but dakotalakestackle.com puts out a quality blank!!!! I use a 30 minute epoxy but from experience make sure when you do this topcoat process when you put it on i use cheap water color brushes (walmart 30 of them for like 3 bucks or something like that) only do two lures at a time! you'll most likely get hurried trying to get three then miss spots on the first two and if you do two right youll get about halfway through the third one and you wont be able to fix it. I am a member of tackleunderground.com the site is kick bass anything you need to know you can get from there but if you dont feel like straying to another site hopefully my info has helped you and if you need more just give me a shout. Jim

thanks guys

i cleared with a rattle can but did really nice even coats then took the blowdryer to it. Don't know how well the clear is going to hold up but if it doesn't then i can just wet sand and put better stuff on or just redo the reel since it took my only a couple of hours. Im hoping it holds up though I'm pretty happy with the way it is here is the other side. and by the way thanks