BIG M

some flat and round body shallow runners I just finished.

Eric is giving you good advice. As for 2 coats of devcon on a plastic bait not a good idea. If the bait is weighted to the heavy side it may sink after the epoxy is applied. Devcon adds weight to a lure.

buy the best brush you can afford and top of line paint. then practice, practice, and practice some more.

both baits look real good, you did a nice job on those.

Eric is right, don't skimp on your airbrush. There are lots of good quality brushes on the market for under 100.00. My suggestion is the Iwata Eclipse gravity feed brush, best purchase I made for painting my baits.

Eric, you know good and well how I make the eyes. But some things the youngsters just have to learn on their own.

use a hairdryer on low air with high heat and set the paint after each coat. You won't pull the paint off the bait anymore. Now if you put a thick base coat on, you will get an impression from the netting in the paint. I will wait 24hrs before I finish painting a bait if I use a real thick base coat.

I never use tape on a bait, that is just shading with the airbrush and lots of practice. I can't give away my secret for the eyes or rattles.

GMAN, I hope you like the look of these.

A couple of good looking baits.

First go to Home Depot and get another regulator and a moisture trap add trap to the air outlet and then the regulator, you can control the psi. Get an in-line moisture trap and add to the hose. The air cannot be too dry. Wildlife colors are nice and thin but some of the colors like to tip dry very quickley. You need to get some extender and follow the directions to use. I shoot wildlife colors also but for thin lines I shoot the paint at 10 psi also. What brand of brush are you using? You can post the pic right here on this thread and fourbizz, ernel, dampeoples and others will give you all the help we can. Don't be afraid to show your early work, I've been painting baits for close to 5yrs and I'm still not as good as I hope to be.

Eric, those flip/flop scales show up real well in clear water. Savannah, you have to get the net on tight first, then spray the paint in several thin layers. Make sure you dry every coat with a hairdryer. That red baits has three coats of bronze to make the scales.

Sorry to hear about the brush mishap, been there and replaced needles/tips. I was wondering what the heck happened to you. All of those baits look real good.

if it's beavers then say thankyou and get ready to wear out the fish around the lodge and other fresh cover put in the water. if it's otters kiss you pond and all the bass good bye, they will clean it out.

Once you've twisted a few of them, it's real easy. You cannot pull those out of a blasa bait without tearing the bait apart.

you can use glass worm rattles but I do mine different and sorry but I don't tell that little secret. For the glass worm rattles just drill a hole thru the bait and insert the rattle. A little wood putty and it's ready for paint.

My friend you have entered the world of pain in the butt airbrushing. It could be your brush, paint too thin or paint too thick, psi is too high or too low. You going to have to play around with thinning paint and adjusting pressure to find a combo that works for the brush you are using. The paint may need to have extender mixed with it to slow down the tip drying. If the needle and tip are bigger than .35mm you can't spray a very thin line. Practice, practice, and practice some more on a box or something. Freehand painting is not the easiest thing to get the hang of.

String, that is a flip/flop paint (blue/green) and I'm glad you like that bait I kind of dig the Fugly Crappie, it has a nice loud rattle in it too.

Here is my version of a smaller B3 and the M-flat in Fugly Crappie, named by my wife.

The original lips made out of that material where made in Tenn by guys working at a plant that made circut boards. Theys used the scraps, it has turned into a common name for the stuff. But if it really bothers you I can call g-10 or g-11, that's what I use. ;D

I would not advise screw eyes in balsa wood. I twist my own from 20ga ss wire and drill a small hole and epoxy in. I make lips from 1/16 lexan or 1/32 circut board. You are way ahead of the game without any help.

good looking baits there. My fav wood is balsa but I use cedar also. As for paint I use taxidermy airbrush paint.

Hookem, that's why I keep making baits. I gonna catch up to you one day

Here are a couple of tries at foil again, I hate that stuff. Stringjam, is this the twist on red that you are looking for?

A couple of tries at painting a bream pattern, top bait is cedar the other two are balsa. The pic doesn't show the ghost scales on the bottom bait done with flip/flop paint.