Pearl Paint, Scratch Coats & Epoxy

[Eric Roach]

I don't usually use more than a few colors on a lure, but I layered pearl white, pearl silver, pearl copper, pearl green and pearl brown on a needle recently to imititate a pollock. The paint is all water-based acrylic, but from three different companies (Createx, Polytranspar and Folk Art).

The pattern came out very nice, but I got a markedly uneven finish with E-Tex on two paralell sections of the lure, over the exposed green pearl. The green pearl from Polytranspar is a very thin, translucent paint; it takes quite a bit more than Createx to get it to shade. Consequently, it goes on pretty wet. The brown pearl goes over this.

I was just curious if any of you wait until one layer is completely dry before moving on to the next when more than two colors are overlapped. I've been painting all layers in short order and letting it dry for over 24 hours in a space with <60% humidity (with a fan), but I still get uneven epoxy in spots I know were previously pretty wet.

I might have to let the pearl green dry between coats. I'd switch to another pearl green choice, but I really like this shade.

Does anyone do a clear "scratch coat" before epoxying? I'm thinking that having the lure one type of acrylic might make the epoxy finish more consistent. I have a spray bottle of Folk Art clear gloss acrylic. It does have Xylene and Acetone in it, though -- I hope that wouldn't get to the Rust-Oleum lacquer base coat under the water-based paints.