Deep Cranks

I painted a bunch of walleye blades this winter. No scratching necessary, I was painting hammered nickel size 4 and 5's. Some of them I put down white Createx base, some of them I left nickel base and simply top coated. I thinned my Devcon 2t with alcohol and they turned out great. Rock hard top coat.

You should at least consider an Iwata. I got an Iwata HP-C (0.3 mm tip) online for under $100 with free shipping. Most air compressors will suffice, as long as they are filtered and regulated. So my pancake compressor gets double duty.

Thinning certainly will help. I use Createx airbrush water based (opaque, flouro, transparent, pearls, and iridescent). The only one that doesn't need to be thinned IMO is the transparent. It shoots really nice from the get go for me. Pearls and Iridescent can be especially challenging with a 0.3 mm tip. I've found the Pedge with Future has really helped all of my colors (see previous thread about Createx thinning).

Yup, you should heat set the Createx even if you let them sit. Only takes 30 seconds or so. I usually heat set each layer I put down, which will be several on some colors.

Just wanted to follow up that I tried the Pledge Future this weekend. I was mainly looking for something to help with the Createx pearls that I shoot (silver, copper, blue, purple). I have tried water, IPA, and the illustration base from Createx. None worked all that well for the tip dry and clogs that I experienced with Pearls. I have an Iwata HP-C with 0.3 mm tip. My next course of action was to purchase a 2nd Iwata with a 0.5 mm tip. Now I don't think that will be necessary. I'm happy to say that the Future worked really well. I added maybe 10-15% distilled and about 20% Future. I was able to shoot the Blue pearls yesterday much more smooth consistency. Very little tip dry now, so I highly recommend. The paint seemed to adhere very nicely as well. It even helped the fluorescents, white opaque, and transparents shoot more smoothly. These worked well for me earlier, but they are now even better. BTW I found the Future at Menards for $5.99 late last week. It's in a clear/yellow container now.

Your 30 gallon will work fine. If there is something you don't like about it, at least you can then later select the compressor you want for your needs. I used a 20 gallon air compressor at first and later bought a very cheap pancake one that takes up far less space in my utility room. Both work the same because they both keep the air pressure plenty high. You want a combination oil/water trap and regulator for any kind of air compressor. Although your compressor will keep the pressure 50-100 psi, you will be using between 7 and 25 psi for most painting applications, thus the need for the regulator. You will have to get the necessary adaptros to make everything fit. It should all be at home depot. I used a quick connect tubing connector on my Iwata so that I could run a long length of plastic tubing to my filtered/regulated air supply just after the compressor.

I don't know much about the Master air brush setup. On paper it looks pretty good. Hopefully someone responds who has experience with some of these products. I guess if it was me I would piece together a system with specific parts. Gravity feed, double action, these are things that are very useful to have. A good tip size to target is 0.3 mm. It will shoot fine details well and will still be large enough to base coat your lures in a large spray pattern. The only limitation I see is that sometimes the pearlized colors will clog, but I still use it for that as well. A 0.5 mm airbrush might be better for that. Iwata airbrushes are very well regarded. I got a HP-C for under $100 as they were switching the to the newer HP-C Plus models. Either are really great brushes. I feel like I will not outgrow it's capabilities, rather I'm still trying to catch up to what it can do. You can go many different directions with air compressors. Sounds like the one you are looking at in the package is made for airbrush work. Lower pressure and pretty quiet. If you don't mind the noise, a regular compressor works fine. I added a moisture/oil trap and a regulator to a pancake style compressor purchased for well under $100 and it works fine (I also use it for finish nailer!). But it is louder I'm sure than the one you're looking at. That would still leave $100 to spend on paint, and you could buy a ton of paint in the colors you wanted for that. Probably also have money left over for 2 part epoxy, acid bruses, etc. Good luck

Good tips all around and I will use some of them. I am on my 2nd year of spraying baits and the info here has really helped. Getting Createx thinned properly has helped me out immensely. My biggest problem is that the pearls will still sometimes clog my HP-C with .3 mm tip, but it works pretty well most of the time. I usually spray Createx in the 10 +/-4 psi range. I did want to point out that Acetone is extremely flammable, so be careful if you are spraying that stuff. I work about 3 feet from my furnace in my basement, so that would not be a good idea for me. Booom!

Sweet reply Angus, thanks! I really like your idea about practicing in between color changes, I think I'll try that. I use Createx water based as well and generally do not thin the transparents either. 10-14 psi is what I run through my 0.3 Iwata HP-C. When I run pearls through it I do have some issues. I've tried thinning with various things, but 70%alcohol/30%water seems to work the best. It doesn't seem to affect the cure too much. Even so, the pearls are semi-difficult to control even after thinning. Since I'm really just a novice, I only do thinner lines with the transparents since they seem to be easier for me to control.

Are you going to be painting lures? If so, you could try some repaints to get practice in before you paint lures that are hand carved. I know Gander has some Rapala sales going on right now. I went into this thinking I'd like to make 10-15 lures this winter for the cost of a nice airbrush + $50 for supplies. I've probably spent close to $200 plus the airbrush just to get most of what I needed. Addictive, but kinda expensive for sure: Un-painted lures, airbrush paint, basswood, balsa, ballast weight, lexan and chipboard bills, fine glitter, holographic tape, netting for scales, Devcon 2Ton, brushes, screw eyes, split rings, hooks, dressed hooks, masks, etc, etc. Better delay that wedding! My wife just rolls her eyes now when a box comes to our door with supplies.