Well, thanks to Nightfighter, I got a Salty's kit which I can give it a go on.....so here are the steps so far. Waiting for the epic fail at the end...lol.

this is pics of the first coat of primer, then sanded and second coat

this is the next round, with high gloss black

Is one of the belly holes filled in with a weight?
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Crap! No, should it be? It's ok, the second round of paint came out bad, so I'm sanding it off and trying again. Should I put the belly weight in first?

Yep. Remember when I showed you the difference of the primers, and how I hadn't gotten enough filler over the weight, and it showed through the primer? Belly weights before primer, tail weights when rigging.

Don't sweat it Fish won't care. It is called the learning curve. Look great. Many more to come to get the sequence down.Remember only fishermen care about the paint job. If you painted everything you ever made white you would probably end up a happy angler. Have fun. P.
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yup, off to sand down and do the belly weight then paint again. lol

mistake # 1 of 1 million to come!, I know from experience. Looking real nice, and as Professor said... the fish won't care. There are plugs that catch fish and ones that catch fishermen. Great work.

A lot of kindling is made prior to making a great plug. You are doing fine and like the others said fish don't care what the paint looks like. We are the only ones that do. They are more concerned with profile and vibration
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Thanks for all the great suggestions! You guys are awesome.
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Crap! No, should it be? It's ok, the second round of paint came out bad, so I'm sanding it off and trying again. Should I put the belly weight in first?

wasnt trying to kill the wind in your sails, just noticed the pic and saw the belly hole not filled in.

Kits are great way to learn, small investment and all the layout and design is done, once you do a few kits, youll see whats involved and can go from there.

I love the process of building, but hate sanding the most.

I think the best part of building is taking a design you like or something that is no longer made and tweaking it to fit a niche or spot you fish.

catching on your own stuff is the best overall.

Theres a ton of great guys on this site that are willing to help as you know.

Good luck and post more pics.

a plug is only wrong ... when the builder sayes it is !!!!!:)

It's all good guys. Can't wait to show you finished pics. Should be good, and even if it isn't, I've been bit by the plug bug, so I already have more ideas for the next few kits! lol

All pencils are weighted in the ass so that they can walk the dog like a zara spook. By weighting the center of it.... This will kill the action and make it harder for you to get the right zig zag that drives the bass up to the surface to grab it... Now to much lead will make it sink.
Most guys use AYC for pencils and drill a 1/2 hole in the ass for the weight.
I hope this helps ya and dont cut round plugs with the chop saw because the saw will rip it out of your hands at high rate of speed and drag your fingers towards the blade... always use a push stick when using a table saw.

OK back on track here

off to a good start there N.ShoreFisher

Is that the 2oz spook kit??
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Now I see what happened here.... OCM, it's a 2 oz.spook kit from Bugger. You mistook it for a pencil from the pics.




Thanks, Bruce.

a spook likes a little weight in the rear so when you twitch it, the rear tries to get ahead of the front therefore giving it the side to side rythym

some of the paint chipped a little when I removed the tape, and the black isn't as smooth as I wanted, but screw it, I'm done painting this plug. lol

one more

Looks great to me.Once the epoxy is on it you probably won't notice the paint not being as smooth as you would like. Good start

Looks great! 1st fish will chew that puppy up, what a great feeling that is! Congrats and welcome to the brotherhood.

thanks guys! Can't wait

Congrats, looks great! I did some plug kits back several years ago because I didn't have the room or the time to build plugs from scratch. I had a blast painting them and rigging them with the hardware. Even though it was just a kit, it felt like an accomplishment when I saw the finished product. You're gonna really enjoy it when you catch your first fish on that one.

Thanks for all the great suggestions! You guys are awesome.
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:rotf2:All these guys are just waiting for you to get good at it, so they can Ho plugs from you.:rotf2:

All kidding aside, Salty's stuff is a great weigh to learn, and having to sand off a plug to do it over again is a tenuous endeavour, but one that will allow a period of introspection about what your trying to do in the end.

looks good to me, a coat of devcon 2 ton your good to go

so I hand turned the lure last night for 2+ hours and finally went to bed, but the epoxy still settled. I'm wondering if it's because there's some really small bubbles in the epoxy. I tried the heat method, but it still had some in it. Was kind of bummed.

Epoxy can be a real pain at times. Temp,humidity,thickness,normal purpose all add to the equation.Rodbuilding epoxy coat can still run after 4 hrs at times,2 ton will cure very slowly under 60 degrees,mix can be off if not done thourough and a light pointing at it can make it cure quicker.3 hrs is a safe time for turning but check it to make sure.The left over for the mix is good to keep on the bench so you can check it. I use etex and keep a close eye on the plugs. you can sand the sags to smooth them out an cover it with another thin coat.Just keep an eye on it. a light pointed at it about 16 in away from the plug will keep a good temp if the area your working in is cool.Hope this helps. Ron

you should call that one "black widow", it'll slay :btu:

it's funny you say that johnny, I've been calling it that for a few days now. I figured if it was gonna be a simple paint job, at least make it look badass!! lol

first pics are my hand turner....watched some Rambo III while I turned, so it went by faster...lol. The last pic is the finished product, before I went to bed and the epoxy settled.

Nice work. My first plug was a stick with a hook on it.

It's awesome how expoxy makes it really pop, I love it when I hit that stage.
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well, here she is. #1 is in the books! All dressed up with VMC Barbarian hooks.

Plug looks sweet, but if that's for saltwater bass you need to size up those treble hooks!
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Nice job on the tail wrap!
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yeah, I need bigger hooks, just threw some on so I could say she was done

Looks like it is time to swim that plug!
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