I found a company's page that custom paints baits and they mainly specialize in KVD crank baits, but they do other cranks, swim baits, frogs, soft plastics etc.

I was curious to see what type of paint they use but they have not contacted me back, I mean why would they lol. But I was interested in doing this my girlfriend is very artistic and she would love to get involved and put some things out.

Does anyone know what type of paint would do the job? I'd also imagine that a clear protective coat would have to go on there as well. Never done anything like this before but I'd imagine something like this could take off.

Thanks for any info

Oddly enough , I was reading an old bassmaster magazine last night on custom paint jobs  on crank & jerkbaits . I will see if I can dig up some links , they are expensive but man there is a very noticable diff in appearance .

Oddly enough , I was reading an old bassmaster magazine last night on custom paint jobs on crank & jerkbaits . I will see if I can dig up some links , they are expensive but man there is a very noticable diff in appearance .

Yea I will post some pics of this guys work on the site. He also has people send him any lures that they want refurbished and does that for them or you can send in your lures and he will customize them for you.

Trey Harpel of Threeltuning does custom paint along with servicing and upgrading reels. His airbrush/paint work is top notch.

 

Any kind of paint will work so long as it is compatible with your top coat. I think most guys use acrylic latex paints which are water based and don't react with top coats. You can use solvent based paints but you need to be sure they won't react with your top coat or you're in for a mess.

 Was about to suggest a local guy i dont have experience with to help him out. looked at this page and was in awe. 

Yeah it'd almost be a shame to bang them up.

A majority of crankbait painters use acrylic latex paint such as Createx, shot with an airbrush.  A few use solvent based lacquers.  The trick is to topcoat the paint with a durable product that is compatible with the paint you use.  Epoxy, moisture cured urethanes, auto urethanes, UV cured polyesters, etc are all candidates. 

There sure seems to be a lot more artists out east here that paint plugs than back out west. I've been on the lookout for bluegill cranks with orange on the bottom and it's hard to find. But there are lots of beautiful cranks.

Tight Lines

Airbrush acrylics are the go. Easy to use, non toxic, massive color range. I use Autoair brand exclusively now for their superior perfomance and color range, but Createx, Wicked and Golden Airbrush are all suitable products

If you do get into painting baits. Just a heads up, put the paint on thick will change the way the bait runs. And most times for for the bad. 25 years ago, used to help a buddy of mine paint baits when he was behind. And hate to say it, our paint jobs looked the same. But mine was about 3 mil thicker than his. And the baits he painted would out catch the ones I did. 

A bait shop at Pickwick was paying him so much for each bait. At that time I think they were getting $30.00 per bait to there customers. And these baits were not out on the displays. Only a few could buy these, we did them by the case back then.

Pete

Createx Paint and Devcon Two tone 30 minute epoxy!

Createx Paint and Devcon Two tone 30 minute epoxy!

X2...Createx is the leader in acrylic paint, the color choices are infinite. Epoxy like Devcon 2ton 30 minute takes  more time than urethanes, but you can do things with Devcon like add glitter and flecks to the topcoat that can really make a bait look amazing.

Createx paint all the way. If you're interested in airbrushing you're own Cranks, I suggest you look into dakotalakeslures, check him out on youtube.