I did these up to put in a new box for the waldo fishing. The heads range from the 3/16 to the 3/8 and have hooks suggested in the mold except the 3/8 which sports a 4/0 Matzuo. All of these Matzuo hooks are remnants from several years ago when Matzuo had a huge problem with quality control and I was credited new hooks from a provider. I had to sort thru a mess of then to get enough to do this casting session and still had some issues getting the hooks in the mold along with the wires. The problem with the hooks is the stem length between the hook shank and tie eye. The hooks DID NOT come from Do-It and this issue is supposed to be a thing of the past.
I added a perch color and removed the orange and black in this bunch. I also tweaked the pink this time using fluorescent pink and cutting it about 25% with pearl magenta and adding a touch of reducer to help the pearl flow. The green back of the perch was done by mixing fluorescent green and green pearl about equal and using the reducer again. The chartreuse that looks almost gold is the lime pearl and fluorescent yellow at about 60/40% respectively and cut with some reducer. The purple pearl and orange fluorescent are right out of the bottle, neither needing any help from reducer. The purple and pink numbers all have the orange throat patch in orange.
In each color the chartreuse was applied first in a nice coat that covered without the paint pushing. Too close, too much pressure or too much paint will result in the paint "pushing" and stacking up on an edge of the spray pattern. Putting down a nice even coat is all that's needed in the chartreuse. The other colors are single coats blown on at an angle so the coverage is at the back/bottom and feathers down the sides. Generally, keep the coats light and thin but just heavy enough to get good color. If I end up with a really thin area and the lead shows I leave it since the Seal Coat will cover it and the added reflection is always welcome. I've found out that attempting to amend thin areas usually turns out to be a bad idea so I just leave the paint as is or wash it off and start over.
You'll note again that the purple outnumbers any others....its absolutely my go to color for basically everything I fish. That perch color has been a real solid walleye/sauger performer too so the black/orange went and the perch came in. The perch is a real looker and I am happy with the outcome in doing the three color. The orange throat patch shows in a few of these but in the hand its a thing of beauty. The patch can be a challenge to apply without over-doing it so whenever I can get the practice I take.