I'm making pretty good progress improving on my painting skills for some needlefish and popper blanks I bought from NJT, but I still can't seem to perfect finishing off the tailend of the thru wire. Are there any steps or suggestions you guys follow to make the tail loop and a couple snug turns of the wire?

patience and lots of practice. It took me around 50 plugs before I got it decent

Guys out here told me about the round nose needle nose pliers.
Do a search and you should see a pic with them in it. They
helped me alot.

I've turned literally thousands of these by hand and What I so is place a small allen wrench in a vise very very tight. and I will leave about 3 to 4 inches of extra wire and spin it once around the allen wrench and 3 spins turning (every half turn) and finally cutting the extra off and pinching it in with plyers.

It's important to use very good gripping plyers I prefer small Lineman plyers. And if your scared of scratching the plug, put masking tape on it first.

Good luck