redskullz

Thanks johnnyb! I was hoping this thread would inspire some to do some painting. Riplin Redfins are my favorite shallow water cranks....ive caught almost every gamefish on them except for muskie and panfish. Now if only CC would get a durable finish!!(and i dont think its ironic that the finish is so chippy....great lure with crappy topcoat finish = lots of more money for company!!) I get a max of 3-4 good sized pike(6-10lbs) on 'em before the finish/paint is half gone. The only thing i dont like about the redfins other than the weak finish is the lack of colour schemes. The colours that are available work awesome, but there just isnt enough of them. Be on the lookout next week for a step-by-step tutorial on lure painting. ANyone have any colour scheme requests? I have a topwater to paint in a green bullfrog pattern for the guy that is sending me some prototype flat black crankbaits/topwater lures. I might do some crankbaits in a frog pattern too. OH do i wish i had an airbrush!!

OH i have lots of cranks that run fine and are beat up which are fine as is, but these all had 1" pieces of paint gone and/or wouldnt run true anymore. I tried just sanding the chipped edges to get them to run well again but no luck(on the husky jerks). The redfins ran okay with the chipped paint, but much of the paint was gone. I bought a new green redfin this year and put 2 coats of envirotex on it. I am hoping they are much more durable than the factory finish!! We'll find out this weekend on local zone pike opener! Thanks for the comments!

OH yeah....i am out of chippped cranks right now, but i am going to be getting some in the mail next week, so i'll do a step-by-step with pics of the whole process.

Thanks I soak the chipped lures in a cleaner called Simple Green for a couple of days...some lures it helped soften the paint for sure, some not so much. The i take an xacto knife and start scraping...wear glasses! Paint chips in the eyes is not fun. The envirotex i bought from an art store called curry's. I also use envirotex in miniature scenery i make for wargames so i bought a gallon of it last year and still have a lot left. Curry's also does mail order and has small 8 oz and 16 oz envirotex packages. Please post pics of your cranks when you get 'em done!!

I had 4 cranks(2 rapala HJ-14, One Ripplin Redfin, One Bomber Long A) that wouldnt run true due to chipped paint. So i stripped the paint off and hit em up with some flourescent orange and black tiger stripes, painted some eyes on and game them 2 coats of envirotex. Here is the contraption i put together so i could coat 4 lures at once and not have to buy anything...made from a broken salvaged shoe rack and some dowels. Works great! Here is some more i finished up today...tried some varied painting on thes ones...cant wait to try 'em out!! Another ripplin redfin Bomber Long A Rebel "blank" (anyone remember the name of this rebel crank?)