Paint suggestions for hard plastic lures?

[Slobber Bob]

Does anybody paint their own hard plastic lures without an air brush? Any suggestions and recommendations on paint products to use? Does spray paint or craft paint work?

I have a handful of sp minnows, mirrolurre type plugs, and topwaters that I've found either washed up on the beach or marsh or that I've found on rocks and pilings that boaters weren't able to recover. Most of the beach and marsh lures have had all the paint worn off them down to the clear plastic. I'd like to restore them with some color and clear coat before throwing them into the tackle box. I'm not looking to do anything fancy, just solid patterns like bone, yellow, black, blurple.

Thanks

[Mark]

I have never painted plastic lures, just jig heads with powder paint.

But I wonder if Krylon Fusion spray paint would work for your purposes? It's intended for plastic surfaces.

Good luck,

Mark

[rob-kayak]

ditto what Mark said...

My only opinion is to test any clear acrylic coating as some are not so "waterproof" and will either get soft, dissolve, or turn milk when wet.
Probably won't need clear acylic with a generic gloss spray can.

[Memory Maker]

I believe it will work. I would lightly sand and wipe with alcohol first.

[Mark]

Cleaning the surfaces prior to painting is a very good suggestion. You might also want to test each lure prior to painting by submerging it for a while to make sure the body is waterproof. Hard use and being exposed to weather while abandoned may have created cracks at the glue seams and where the O-rings connect. And if you haven't already tried them, now is your chance to try single in-line hooks in lieu of trebles on your hard-bodied baits.

Please show us some photos if you proceed with your project.

[Slobber Bob]

I'll certainly post a picture, good or bad, how they turn out once I get around to working on them. Thanks.

[mchottie]

Dave Inscore posted a plastic sleeve you can re-skin plastic body lures. I was VERY skeptical, but the finished product looked far better than I expected:

https://www.jigskinz.com/

[Slobber Bob]

Oh dang! I'm liking those things! Especially the sand eel and mullet. That route might be the way to go. Too bad you can't mix and match patterns within the pack.

Thanks for sharing!

[Mark]

Just a brief follow-on:

The April/May hard copy Issue of "Fly Fisherman" magazine has an interesting article about a Do-It-Yourself airbrush consisting of a can of compressed air and a permanent felt-tip marker. The article shows how you can use that combination to add contrast markings to foam bodied fly poppers. It would certainly work for hard bodied lures.

I checked the Fly Fisherman website but didn't see that article posted yet. It will probably appear after the current issue has left store racks.

airbrush.jpg