In Tears

[KB Tackle]

O.K. guys, just started a couple of weeks ago, have done a few and have been tickled with the results. So I thought I was ready for a challenge. Wanted to do a sexy shad. Started with a mixture of pearl white and pearl silver, sprayed a turquoise pearl silver mix over that in a scale pattern, faded to dark turquoise top. I am happy dancing all around garage thought it looked great. Got ready for a gold stripe down the sides, RUINED BOTH. Question is how to you get the pretty gold stripe? (Do you mask it with something? Still Depressed!!!!!!!! At least with this stuff you just sand and start again. Any help on masking or advice will be appreciated. Thanks in advance......

[hazmail]

Not sure what a sexy shad is, not even sure what a sexy woman is any more, BUT you can get a fine line with your air brush (practice practice) , mask it, use a pinstripe brush, or drag a piece of cotton (not polyester cotton) loaded with paint down your lure, all will give a fine stripe with the cotton probably the finest.pete

[RiverMan]

Not a big deal, wash them off and do it again. I have washed literally hundreds of lures. I personally don't like to use stencils because I think they give lures a stiff look but you might like them.

Try to put on a very light amount when you go with the gold line. Keep the brush back from the lure about 6 inches and make many really light passes. The brush should always be moving and blowing just a tiny bit of paint. After several passes you should have what you want........too much paint and a brush too close to the lure is impossible to control.

RM

[gunnie3035]

I do it a couple of different ways. Obviously using painters tape is quick and easy, but as others have mentioned it does give a hard line. The other way I do it use a transparent light brown, go back and forth until satisfied, then lightly dust with pearl gold. I've done the same thing using a white stripe, then transparent chartreuse, then dust with gold. Hope this helps......

[pizza]

I take it you haven't lost your first homemade lure yet. Or you first favorite homemade lure yet. That's when the fun begins!

[BobP]

Paint the bait pearl white. Spray the shoulders medium to light gray. Then do the blue back. Then put a chartreuse stripe just over the bottom edge of gray paint. If you get it on the blue, blue + yellow = green (you probably don't want that). Lastly, shoot some pearl chrome over the whole bait, going a little heavier around the head to make it darker. The pearl chrome tones down the other colors, unifies the whole scheme and gives the bait an iridescent finish. It turns the chartreuse to iridescent gold. The pearl chrome is a Smith Wildlife color from taxidermy.com.

[mark poulson]

After you've gotten all the paint on and heat set, use a yellow sharpie to draw the stripe down the side. If you use a fine point, double the line to get the width you want. Then spray over that with Createx transparent base and heat set that, to protect the sharpie from the top coat.

The same method works for gills, blood lines, and any other fine details you want.

[BobP]

Mark, I've used a Sharpie and it works well, but only if the clearcoat does not contain solvent that will dissolve Sharpie dye. I have used brushes and Q-tips to apply details and that works too if you get the right applicator and have a steady hand.

Edited July 14, 2009 by BobP

[jamie]

My best advise is to practise on some cardboard before spraying the bait to master the final stripe. This will save your blood pressure from raising too high.

[mark poulson]

Mark, I've used a Sharpie and it works well, but only if the clearcoat does not contain solvent that will dissolve Sharpie dye. I have used brushes and Q-tips to apply details and that works too if you get the right applicator and have a steady hand.

BobP,

You're exactly right. I found that, if I don't spray a coat of transparent clear Createx over the sharpie and heat set it, the sharpie runs. A couple of time I sprayed too little, and got a kind of "controled" bleeding of the sharpie colors, mostly the red gill blood markings, which looks kind of cool. But I don't do it on purpose.

[clemmy]

You can find "poster paint" Sharpies as well as Posca markers which are actually pen based acrylic as well, just look to make sure they are water based and not oil. Will work sames as a stenciled airbrush acrylic.

Clemmy

[mark poulson]

Clemmy,

I found out the hard way that water borne urethanes will make water based sharpies run, too, unless they are sprayed with a heat set clear.

[Army Doc]

You can use a fret guard (used in sanding frets on a guitar) they work great for spraying a stripe down a bait. they are made of a flexible stainless steel and are small enough to work great on baits. They can be bent to match the contour of the bait, and taped in place if so desired. You can find em here:

Fingerboard Guards at Stewart-MacDonald

They come in different sizes too, so you can get the right thickness on your stripe. I just started airbrushing and this thing came in handy a couple weeks ago when I was doing the same thing!

[mark poulson]

They used to make the same kind of thing for drafting, an erasure guard, out of thin stainless steel.

You should be able to find one at a stationary store, like Staples or Office Depot.