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gunnie3035

Scales And Painting

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I keep getting a lot of questions on how I do the scales and colors on my baits. I swore when I was learning [like it ever ends] I wouldn't be one of those guys who took a little from everyone and when he figured it out wouldnt share with the folks who helped him. So here it is and I will try to give a step by step. If it doesn't make sense let me know and I will try to explain it better.

Here is the bait I will use as an example. I basically do the same thing on every bait. You can see a bigger picture in the gallery.

baits458.jpg

I can't get the eyes out on these little Black Dog baits so I cover them with tape and cut the top part of the tape off to make it look like eyelids. After priming I paint the back and shoulder area with black. Just below the black I spray a med blue the entire length following the black I layed down. Then I follow the med blue with a transparent sky blue bringing it down on the cheeks a little. I followed the sky blue with transparent red but I stopped at the gill plate. I faded a thin line of flouro transparent pink just under the red. It looks pretty funky at this point.

Now scale off the bait. I use a .99 cent lufa [or however you spell it] from the dollar store. You really need something that will stretch to the contours of the bait. I use RayburnGuy's popcicle stick method. In my opinion its the best method. Make sure you get it tight on every part of the bait. It can be a real challenge on jointed baits.

Now take plain old gold and cover everything you just painted with exception of the lower gill plate [see pic]. I freehand the stripes, I think you get a more natural looking blend. I use Wasco light bass green to start the stripes it will take several coats dont get impatient or hurry. Once I get a good stripe pattern going on both sides I will follow it up with med bass green. Gill stripes are never straight or uniform so don't sweat it if you get off line. The stripes are darker in the middle and get lighter toward the outside edge. Use short little bursts of paint to paint the med bass green. You don't want a straight uniform line.

After the stripes are painted I will shoot stripes again with a little Wasco shimmering green. Then paint the back and shoulders with light bass green sort of fading it over all the gold paint. I will hit the back and very top 1/4 of the bait with med bass green darkening it up. At this point you can pull the scale material off. If ya did it right you should see all your colors through the scales. After removing the netting I paint a thin line right down the back with a dark bass green. I may shade the face area a little too.

I'm sure you guys can figure out the rest of the paint job on your own.

In MY opinion the most important things in getting these color shifts and scales to jump out is using Wasco transparent paints over some color of pearl. You can get it somewhat with Createx transparents, but not like you can get with Wasco.

If ya want you can flip the bait over and do the same thing for painting the breast. The scales lines will naturally blend in if ya don't get to crazy.

I hope someone can get some use out of this info. If you have any questions post'em up and i will try to help out........

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Hey Gunnie,

Thanks for the step-by-step. How different colors appear layered over one another is one place I'm seriously lacking. Not sure I could paint a bait like that if you were standing there giving instructions with a club in your hand. lol No doubt I'll have to give it a try though. Will just have to make sure there's plenty of solvent around to clean up the mess. B)

Thanks again,

RG

Edited by RayburnGuy
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Make sure you order some retarder with your Wasco paint. It drys really really quick on the needle. I would buy all three greens; light/med/dark bass green, sailfish blue, transparent Violet, Chocolate Brown, and Gill Red. You can use Createx for everything else. Get the 4oz bottles not the 2oz jars. The 4oz bottles have a flip-up lid. The 2oz jars are just a pain to deal with.

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