I am get into painting my own crank baits. I have airbrush, compressor, etc but its time to buy the paint. For you that have painted for a while what are some of the most used colors in your arsenal? Also do you use more Opaque or Transparent colors? I was going to buy a kit with a bunch of different colors but wasn't sure I would use all the colors in it and figured I would need some colors transparent and some opaque.

The colors ya want.... yellow, white, red, purple, black, olive, green... mostly transparent. Throw in pearl white and bronze. Popular colors for me.

Opaque white and black for most standard base coats.  Pearl white for a secondary coat when you want bright colors to pop.  Some popular colors are com art opaque red oxide and  opague aureolian yellow wicked colors wicked silver, detail moss green, opaque white, sepia,  createx pearl lime.  These colors are just some staples, there are many others.  Purchase or learn to make your own cleaning solution and paint reducer  you will need a lot of both.     Here is a tip that you can use to get started on the cheap,   Hobby Lobby sells a ton of acrylic hobby paints, ceramcoat is good one, it comes in every color imaginable.  It is very thick, but when reduced properly sprays and covers very well and will set you back about a 1.50 a bottle compared to 5-8 for some of the major name brands.   Good easy epoxy to get started is devcon, get the stuff that takes longer to cure.        Blow dryer to set colors after spraying, paper towels, cheap brushes to use and throw away when you use your epoxy.   Lots and lots of options, this is what I used to get going and never had a problem.    Stencils, masks, 3M painters tape a handful of alligator clips, helping hands  the list is ever expanding.