Zbowe

Hey all, does anyone have some tips or simply a process map outlined already that they use for priming, painting, and finishing their hard swim baits. I’m primarily making mine out of cast urethane resin. I’m a complete beginner to all this so forgive the ignorant questions. I’ve been practicing with my airbrush but have significant concern on screwing up on my final bait I’ve spent so much time on. So…here iam leaning on the experts. 1. do you always prime your paint jobs? If so, what primer do you use? 2. I assume you sand your primer coat very gentle before applying paint. I am using createx acrylic paint, are there any other really good airbrush paints someone can recommend? 3. do you heat treat every round you layer on your paint or simply before you clear coat it? 4. what type of waterproof sealer are you using? How many coats/layers? id appreciate any suggestions or help that can be offered. Please feel free to offer quick comments or go as detailed as you’d like, I’ve got a ton to learn

This is my first post to tackle underground and thought where better to post than somewhere where experienced bait makers could help by critiquing my design. Here are my questions as a complete newbie. This bait without tail is 7” long and 1” thick near nose and rib cage. I used 25% microspheres (140ml resin and 35ml microspheres) the bait with the lead shot is 4.7ounces. I put the joint almost dead center and hot glued lead shot for ballast/balance in the water. I tried gliding it and it totally sucked! : ) It did float balanced at the top of the waterline however, when I went to reel quarter turns it didn’t glide and listed to one side. 1. Is my bait completely too blocky? If so, should I sand it down to a sleeker design and create a new mold? My edges on top and bottom seem too abrupt 2. Do I need to use more microspheres? Is the general rule for glide baits to make the bait really float (say 50% microspheres) then weight it down in the water? 3. Should the glide bait be near the water surface or 6-12” under the water? 4. could the terrible swimming action, because I simply had lead shot hot glue to the bottom of the bait versus recessed within the bait? I would be incredibly grateful for any help you can offer. Like I said, I’m completely new to all this….but it’s very addicting and feeds my fishing habit.