mayhem1202

The Bloodline blood red is very realistic. I spilled a fair amount of it all over my compressor, and now it looks like a very nasty accident has occured!

I agree with that 100%. Looking at the beautiful paint jobs I see produced by some, it seems such a shame to put them on a cheap knock-off blank. You can make 'em look as pretty as you like, but underneath the paint that's all they'll ever be.

Yep, I bought some nail polish remover in a supermarket once, only to find out later that it had almond oil in it. That would have caused no end of problems if I hadn't noticed before I used it.

If anything is perceived as a route to easy money, people will always jump on the bandwagon I'm afraid. Half the problem is that airbrushing lures to a standard that looks good enough to attract buyers doesn't require particularly advanced skills. A cheap airbrush, a few homemade masks and stencils, and a few hours practice, will suffice. The other half of the problem is that in order to sell your painted lures, you need to show a photo of them, so your pattern is out there for all to copy straight away, and if it's a good one you can sure that it will be. I have to agree with Vodkaman though, in that whilst I do enjoy the painting stage, the process of making the lure from scratch, to behave how I want it to, is the most rewarding part. It also makes reproducing what you've made beyond the skills of a lot of would-be copycats.

I tried CD jewel cases, which I'd read that people had used successfully, but they just went into a snotty lump suspended in acetone and never fully dissolved.

I tried UV resin dye in Etex, but it didn't go very well.. The main problem is that if your epoxy isn't exactly the same thickness all over, the result will be patchy. The thicker the resin the darker the tint and vice versa.

http://www.artresin.com/pages/faq See 15 under Experimenting in the link above. As you've been using the water bath method (as I always did with Etex) It might or might not be a factor in your problems here?

Sanding marks will disappear with the next coat, but be careful with the dust when you sand. Epoxy dust is bad news, particularly if it's only partially cured. I prefer to wet sand epoxy to avoid that.

This stuff isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it's fairly close. http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/reflector-tape-eyes/309111.aspx#ItemImage

This sort of effect?

I think propionate still takes some beating as a penetrating sealer, but availability is an issue.

Apologies for the off-topic post. Dave, How did you include that link? I tried to do that, and failed miserably. This forum is not the most intuitive to use!

There's a very informative thread on this, by jrhopkins. Search the forums for "attaching fiber fins". I would have posted a link, but this forum doesn't seem to allow copying and pasting into posts.

It was polyester casting resin, Dave. As you say, it gels pretty quickly once the catalyst is added, giving very limited time to soak in. I did try Envirotex too, which obviously cures much more slowly, but I was impatient and only gave it a single drip coat, so it wasn't a fair test against the other products that all had three coats. It still managed 8% though. Thinned for penetration and given two or three coats, I'd expect E'tex to give results at least as good as the casting resin, if not better.

I did exactly this kind of test earlier in the year, taking pieces of balsa, adding a screw eye, and weighting them down in an aquarium for 48 hours. I weighed the pieces on 0.01g scales before and after immersion and calculated the increase in weight as a percentage. The untreated control piece increased in weight by 119%. At the time I couldn't source any propionate, so that wasn't included unfortunately, but I do have some now and will repeat the test when I find the time. Same goes for a Bondo sealing product that I think should be good - we'll see. Casting resin produced the best result of the products I tested, at 3%, with yacht varnish just behind on 4%, but neither product penetrates much on the first coat so their effectiveness is highly doubtful for toothy fish. G4 Pond Sealer performed pretty well too, at 10%, with the first coat heavily thinned to get right into the wood. The biggest surprises for me were ones that I thought would perform quite well. Thompson's solvent based concrete sealer registered a 54% increase and sanding sealer 44%.