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hey guys been meaning to do a series of my airbrushing techniques for lure painting for some time now so few days back i desided to shot some footage while painting. any suggestions for future videos would be greatly appreciated i will be adding more as more ideas pop into my head of what to do, probably next on my list of what to do is that 3d scaling that i have been getting a lot of questions of. episode 1

I shoot that bait a lot , which one do you have? There are many options but some are just finicky. Cold molds will cause some no fill problems too. The rings are hard to fill just by design and this sound really funny but the color you shoot makes a difference. Dark bait don't fill as well as light or clear baits do. Denting for sure if from to hot a temp. I shoot mine at about 300 but that is with my equipment so it will vary a bit. Shoot the bait as slow as you can with a firm push at the end to fill the tail out. This will force most of the air out. Make sure your injector is smooth by oiling it with worm oil. Put the injector in plastic till the whole tip is submerged draw plastic and shoot. Make sure the injector is big enough for the mold and remember you cant use all the plastic in the injector because it cools to much so plan on using about 80% ,more if you heat the injector. Also remember if the mold and injector is heated it take longer to demold.

In reference to the OP....I used to compete in turkey calling contests across the Deep South. It's much different calling for judges and actually trying to entice an old wary gobbler. The competition calling has to be sweet, seductive and with near-perfect rhythm. A live hen turkey couldn't carry a tune in a bucket and, frankly, that gobbler couldn't care less. It's kinda the same way painting fishing lures for selling. My skills wouldn't have to be honed that much if I were selling my lures to a bass. But, with fishermen, they have to be pretty and something that they think will catch a fish. Until this changes I will continue to do my lures the same as I've been doing them.

Some molds, especially molds with very small appendages or rings on the body can be temperamental. Denting usually occurs when the plastic is shot too hot and the inside of the bait is starved for hot plastic causing a dent as it pulls in the plastic from the sides of the baits. If you're getting a lot of dents, try to shoot at a lower temp and see if that solves it. Warm your mold and injector, make sure you're not sucking up air into your injector by sucking up plastic, purge it back into the cup and then suck up plastic a second time and then injecting. Most of the time if you're getting voids in your baits you're sucking air into your injector and not getting it out. Just keep at it and don't get frustrated there's always a learning curve when you try new things!

If you lost your job right now and someone told you that you HAD to make you living and pay all of your bills by fishing bass tournaments....... would color matter to you? Skeeter

I gave the new glider a test swim today, after testing both a stock 7" S Waver in baby bass, and a 7" trout S Waver that I had sprayed with Performix Liquid Tape, to give it a softer texture ala Butch Brown's Deps Glider. Short story long, they all swam great. There was virtually no difference in action between the stock bait and the one sprayed with Liquid Tape. Although I had tried to give my 7" glide bait copy the same range of movement in it's joint, it would up with a bigger S action, and would turn 90 degrees+ on a quick pull. It was a far cry from my first attempt at a glide bait, which didn't move at all except straight ahead. I owe the success to the input from you guys in this thread. Thank you all. Here's two pics of the baits:

Thanks. I've been making hard plastic tails out of the tops of margarine tubs. Cheap and easy, and they fit in a handsaw or bandsaw kerf.

There are a lot of little things that can affect glide action. But I have found, restricting the joint to less than 30 deg of movement, making the front section longer than the tail section, keeping the bait ballasted as low as possible and making them a very, very slow sink usually produces a bait with a very nice glide that gets a lot of attention. There are a lot of other factors, but those three have had the most effect for me. ok. 4.

I did a quick search.... go to YouTube and search on "scale masking on fishing lures"... lots of videos. I saw a Chinese factory video a year back and there wasn't any special machines or tooling... just a lot of people with airbrushes doing it the way we do it! They did use cardboard masking shapes, think curves cut on cardboard. Airbrush books show you how to create "masks" from cardboard. I have a few I made myself, they give a clean line on one side while allowing the paint to fade away from the mask. They can also be used to block or protect areas. For scales I use door screen material, plastic orange bags like they use for the little oranges, look in your produce market! Many veges and fruits are packaged in nylon bags... all can make scales if you stretch them one way or another. Another good scale pattern can be made from women's lace stockings. Think outside the box!

Just my $.02 worth, but the burn marks on the soft pine wood makes me think that the bit is on the dull side. I would probably cut the wood a little closer to size before putting in to the router. I congratulate you on working the bugs out. That machine can come in very handy. Musky Glenn

Time to rethink again. Rebuilt the dremel support. But the cable is too stiff IMHO. Might add springs to the arms to prevent the cutter from digging in, but that's a minor problem. It does cut. It does follow a pattern. Will rebuild the round bar using a trim router and add springs. Then we try again. G

ever though of using real fish skin? heres how i do it

who wants to learn how to make almost realistic fish eyes ?

episode 2 how i do the 3d scales that so many guys have asked about.

Heres a peek at one we've been working on. This prototype was made simply for proof of concept, it has many flaws & it's quite dangerous, please dont attempt. Once we're happy with the design, we'll make it available here. Our prerequisites were that the materials be readily available, affordable & be able to build & use in a small shop. Feedback welcomed. 8oSMf_1nLqE