thunnus64

Yes, these are my first two lures. I've had these two airbrushes sitting around for the longest time since I quit model building some twenty years ago. I finally got a compressor and got everything hooked up to build a plastic model and then the idea of painting lures came up. Using the single-action airbrush (Paasche H) came back to me pretty easily but I'm having trouble with the double-action model (Paasche V). It shoots crooked (higher than where I am pointing). I can adjust for it but it's preventing me from doing some more detailed work. I have a small collection of model paints... mostly Tamiya acrylics. When I started looking into lure painting, I kept running into references to Createx so I bought a few bottles. Honestly, I am having very inconsistent results with the Createx. Sometimes it comes out of the airbrush fine... other times it clogs and spits or comes out really watery. The rainbow trout's back is one instance where the Createx worked nicely. It is a mixture of Leaf Green and Sand (both Transparent colors) that I eyeball-mixed and thinned with a bit of Future and distilled water. Underneath that green is a light coat of Createx Pearlized Gold. It's hard to see in the pictures but in person, I can see a bit of goldish glint in the light area between the green and pink.

Hello All, After gleaning as much information as I could from this site and others, I decided to jump into the world of lure painting. I used to build plastic models when I was younger so I have access to a couple of airbrushes and a compressor. I bought a few lure blanks, hooked up the airbrush and gave it a go. The first lure I did was a lipless crankbait in surf perch pattern. I live in Southern California and surf perch are a common inshore species and can be forage for bigger species such as halibut. After getting some so-so results on a test mule using the airbrush for the striped markings, I decided to hand paint them instead. The painting was a mixture of different paints. I used a flat white model acrylic (Gunze Sagyo?) for the base coat and laid Createx Pearlized White over that. The stripes were handpainted using Testors Acrylic. Createx Gold was used to highlight the cheeks. A Testors Enamel (Manganese Brown) was used for the top overcoat. Colors are a bit off when compared to a real surf perch so I think I can improve on this the next time. I wanted to swap the eyes out so I didn't give it a final clear coat yet. Since I used such a variety of different paints, I sealed it with a coat of Pledge with Future in case the clear epoxy doesn't like the enamel. My second lure is a Sammy-clone in rainbow trout. Tamiya White acrylic as the base coat with Createx Pearl White on top of that. I mixed the top green using Createx paints. The pink stripe is Gunze Sagyo acrylic. I handpainted the black spots using a fine paintbrush. The whole thing was coated with Devcon 2-Ton epoxy. Lots of mistakes, messy airbrush work and lessons learned but we all have to start somewhere right? There is alot of stuff to grasp regarding this new hobby and I'm grateful to have found this site and the wealth of info that it provides. Hopefully I'll be able share some more!

That's a nice camera! How close you get is going to be determined by the lens that you are using. Most general purpose lens will have an MFD (minimum focusing distance) that is too long for you to get close to your lure unless you use extension tubes. One way around this is to pull the camera far enough away from the subject to get the focus confirmation beep and then crop the photo tighter afterwards. A tripod is a good suggestion, although I don't use one myself.

Nice lures! Most digital cameras have a macro or close-up mode that allows you achieve focus when you are close to your subject. It is usually denoted by a flower symbol.