JR77

thanks for replys, toadfrog the ones lure parts online have are all open eye(i was after closed eye) and i think they would be to big for my application(total lure length is 35mm) thanks for the link Diemai i checked it out but no joy there either. i was signed up on lureandmore will see if i can log in and ask the question there. once again thanks for the info and i shall continue to search. cheers JR..

G'Day there, i have been looking for pre formed figure 8 style hook hangers to buy(about 100 or so) but so far the only place i can find them is luremaking.com and they only ship to australia on orders over $200. i have been making them myself from .8mm(aussie metric) stainless wire but just thought if i could buy them pre made i could save myself a heap of time. the size im after are very small to suit bream lures 35-50mm. if anyone has any ideas as to where i might be able to get some of these your help would be much appreciated. cheers JR..

great looking swim bait. i had similar experience when i made not my first but second swim bait. the fact that my first one swam perfectly was just bit of a fluke i think. then i made a second not paying enough attention to how i'd gone about the first painted it up took it out for a swim and alas it did not swim. i tried different bibs with little to no change. i then floated my 2nd attempt next to the 1st and noticed it(2nd) floated higher in water and also noticed that the tow point on the 1st lure was much lower down towards bib. i hung lead of hooks till it sat the same as 1st bait and bent the tow point down towards the bib. tested it again and it swum perfectly. (well i think so and so did the fish). now when i make a new shape/style swim bait i always try to weight it so that at least 2/3 of the bait sit under the water and this has seemed to work for me so far also paying close attention to the position of the tow point. one thing i did find was they swam better if the tow point was at or below water level when the lure was floating. any way just some of my findings through trial and error hope it can help you or anyone else on here cheers JR

angus, i use auto air bases(light and dark) on all my lures and did have some top coat and color lift of on some of my barra lures. this was during use and the top coat(marine grade laquer) was very week and easily penetrated but in saying that the color did lift of the base coat with ease leaving the base coat in perfect condition.the base was painted straight onto red cedar. it was not heat set and was only left to for a round an hour. since then i purchased more autoair paints from airbrush mega store.com.au(highly recommended) and received a free autoair dvd with my parcel. it had some great info and tips/techniques on there products. on it it did talk about flashing off there paints including base coats, but they weren't using heat just an air gun they said autoair will set quickly with high volumes of air hot or cold passing over it. and be ready for more coats in less than 5 minutes. since then i have let my lures sit for a few minutes after base coating then heat set with hair dryer for a further 2-3 or more minutes, then paint again whilst lure is still warm and have had good results using this method. i also recall him(the tutor on dvd) saying for best adhesion put down a very light coat first followed by a slightly heavier second coat and then full coverage on the third. obviously this is not so practical when painting scales or using stencils but i haven't had a problem putting one slightly wetter coat on while using these techniques. hope this helps you in some way angus and you can rectify this problem. cheers JR...

i have used createx auto air color shift in the jade color (it is the only one i've used). i found for the best color shift effect i had to use the autoair dark base coat. (createx state that it is not black but it looks pretty close to me). i also tried it over a 50-50 mix of auto air dark and white base coats to make a mid grey but it didn't show up very much over this base coat so added more of the dark base coat to darken the grey and i got the desired result. it is hard to explain but fun to play with i also painted it over some auto air copper and when you rolled the lure in the sun you could see a slight metallic green almost like a pearl but with no change to the copper color. here is a lure that i painted in it you can see some of the effecs although photos dont do it justice. this is just my findings and i'm no expert on paints or painting but hope it helps in some way shape or form and also look forward to hearing from anyone else who has used these paints. cheers JR...

hi humberto i brought devcon 2 ton 30min epoxy from an online hobby store here in aus. www.ultrahobbies.com.au it cost $21.50 for 9oz (1x 4.5 epoxy+1x4.5 hardener) + postage i just went to there site and it says they are out of stock. send them an email or give them a ring and they will tell you when they are expecting more. get hold of some and give it a go as i think you will be happy with the results. cheers JR...

thanks for the info rofish. very interesting i just presumed the two parts would be of equal weight . maybe i was a bit lucky but all the lures i coated seem to have cured well. maybe it will not set quite as hard as if it was mixed at the ratio stated by manufacturer. i was only mixing small amounts (1.1 grams of each part) so maybe it would have more of an effect on larger amounts. i will mix to correct ratio next time and compare the durability of the the lures i have just finished using equal amounts by weight thanks again cheers JR...

thanks for the info guys. i applied my second coat about 20 hrs after the first which was well cured and hard by that time. was happy with the results. this was my first time using devcon 2 ton(30min)as top coat and am happy with the finished product so far, although it wasn't all smooth sailing! i had 25 large lures(120&140mm) to coat so planed on doing a few at a time, now my first mistake was in measuring out the two parts first i tried to guess buy marking a small medicine cup then filling with both parts to my marks= some didn't harden properly! next i used two syringes of the same size and tried to draw equal amounts into each. not easy with thick epoxies but it did work ok. finally i got some 0.1 g digital scales and how easy was this!!(these can be purchased cheaply of ebay.well worth it). i also had a bit of a disaster trying to do too many lures per batch of d2t and had the stuff drying on a lure with only half of it coated. i ended up just doing one bait at a time and once i worked out the perfect amount(weight) per bait i had almost no waste and got them done pretty quickly. trial and error=best way to learn although i did waste a bit of d2t and had to re-sand a lure but it all ended well. one other thing i found and did read on this forum was using bent piece of wire in drill to mix two parts. it worked great with almost no bubbles forming in it.much better than the icy pole sticks i first used. now for the real and most important tests in the field. thanks again for the info on this topic and to all others that have help my lure building.. cheers JR...

had a fish through all posts related to devcon and cant find the info i'm after. i'v put one coat(top coat) of d2t (30 min) on my baits and wanting to apply a second coat. my question is how long should i let the first coat set before applying the second? will the second coat stop the first from completely hardening if applied over it to early? any info would be appreciated.. cheers JR...

i'm fairly new to this painting through an airbrush myself and am still in the experimental stage. so far i have tried four different paint types/brands. i'm using an iwata siphon feed (bcs i think it is) with 0.5 needle. first i tried a cheap water based paint from a craft shop thinned with water with bad results lots of spider webbing. thought it might have been my lack of knowledge and skill. next i got some auto air by createx and found it much better i used the 4011 flash reducer to thin it and it seemed to paint pretty good although i did struggle with finer detail.once again thought that might have been just me.and it probably was. i watched a few tutorial clips on you tube which helped. i clean up with windex (ammonia free of coarse) and it works great and is cheap, i also use the createx restorer once in a while. third in line was spaz stix its a lacquer based paint i think its mostly used for RC cars etc(google it for more info). it comes thinned ready to shoot. i found this stuff awesome to paint with i love the fact that is ment to be sprayed at a low 15-20 psi so there is almost no over spray and my compressor hardly runs. i found it much easier to use and got better results when doing more detailed work. i'v been using my auto air as a base coat for the spaz and it seems to work well together. lastly i have just got some house of kolor only used it a couple of times but pretty happy with it too although at this stage still think i prefer the spaz. i think its a personal thing on what you decide to use. both water based and solvent/lacquer have there advantages and disadvantages. personally i like auto air due to the fact it is non toxic and i found it easy to clean up with the windex and recoating can be done quickly after flashing off with hair dryer. but for the best finished result it was the spaz that gets my vote great for ease of use when doing fine detailed work. with the solvents it wasn't so much the paint that i found a hassle due to its toxicity after all i was only spraying very small amounts at low pressure(i still always used a respirator) but more so the use of thinners to clean up. this is just what i found and i'm only a learner myself so my best advice is try get small samples of the different paints as cheap as you can and try them for yourself. good luck!! cheers JR...