Tomy's Bait

[Cami]

Hi Guys,
          have you ever seen Tomy's Bait artistic soft baits https://www.facebook.com/Tomys-Bait-231851800335218 ?
I'm really impressed by its realistic painting and texture. I think that he's adopting several painting techniques ... but which ones? Till now I could only learn that he is able to prepare by himself his varnish.
I really would like to learn a varnish recipe for poured plastisol, also because those of SpikeIt cannot be imported by air in Europe and PVC varnishes sold in Europe are really expensive.
Till now I've been able only to mix 50% PVC glue + 50% MEK, but it's good only for brushes, not for air brush.
Bye.

Cami

[Lines]

All I can say is WOW! Those are incredible.

[Cami]

Target:


Question:
How? Which tecnique does Tomy use?

Clue:
only the eye is painted

Hypothesis:
powder pigments are brushed over the inner surfaces of mold, after that the transparent plastisol is casted inside the mold ... what do you think about this hypothesis, please?

Bye
Cami

[Lines]

Does that method make the powder pigment permanent? None of the pigment is lost after injecting?
That is awesome looking for sure.

[ctom]

I can see that working. Maybe I'll play with the idea tomorrow.... supposed to rain all day and I haven't got the wind to chase Ma all day. Looking at the bait in the last picture it appears that simple hi lite powder may work well even though I do have a significant stash of after-market pigments too.

[Muskygary]

World's Worst Fishing (You Tube) has a lot of video's on brushing pigment on open pour molds. You can get ideas from how he does it.

[Cami]

@ Muskygary, I follow WWF, but I don't remember any video about dry brushing powder pigments inside a mold: have you got the link, please?

[olsarge]

Here is how I do it,  I heat up clear plastic (I will add black flake to it if I am pouring a crappie pattern).  Then pour a thin layer of plastic on each cavity (both sides obviously).  Using mica powders and a brush paint whatever pattern you are looking for.  When finished I close the mold back up and inject what ever colors I have chosen for the task.  Most of the time I also hand pour plastic in certain  parts of the bait this will leave blotchy areas on the bait so I leave the mold closed and clamped and fire up the griddle.  Usually about 15 minutes on my griddle is enough to meld all the seams together and seal any cold cracks etc.  WWF does this all the time with his open pour molds but it works just as well for injection molds as well.  This is particularly a great way to use those molds that are lade out so you can't use the dual injector on.

[ctom]

I tried brushing a mold today and found it pretty tough to control the pigment. After doing 5 or 6 cavities I finally got to where I thought it was close enough to inject. The clear did not show much. I re-did a cavity and injected black to see how well the pigment covered and found it splotchy at best. I didn't try a stone mold and maybe that's a better medium for this concept. I did see the WWF guy using silicone and the pigment will "bite" and hold better using those molds.

I have to say though that this fella has it down pat, whatever he is doing.

[Muskygary]

The video was on Worlds Worst Fishing.  "Most vivid color effect, Dusting Hypershift Soft Plastic Lures"  August3, 2020.

[olsarge]

I tried brushing a mold today and found it pretty tough to control the pigment. After doing 5 or 6 cavities I finally got to where I thought it was close enough to inject. The clear did not show much. I re-did a cavity and injected black to see how well the pigment covered and found it splotchy at best. I didn't try a stone mold and maybe that's a better medium for this concept. I did see the WWF guy using silicone and the pigment will "bite" and hold better using those molds.

I have to say though that this fella has it down pat, whatever he is doing.

Tom, I am not quite sure I understand what you are saying when you say the clear does not show very much.  My intention is for it not to show at all.  That is basically my canvas that I paint on (when using powders).  I also use his technique of hand pouring colored plastic stripes etc into injection molds.  It works

[ctom]

I tried the brushing technique using an aluminum injection mold. The pearl powder didn't seem to adhere to the metal all that consistently or it didn't adhere so that I could see well where it was adhering. In the WWF videos that I watched he was using open pour molds and was brushing the partially filled cavities with the powder. I know that if a mold is formatted to have a top and a bottom one can do a stripe by hand pouring, I've done that many, many times, however I was hoping to mimic the bait that Cami's picture showed using clear and my result was a poor example of that. Obviously, the person making that bait is using a combination of techniques.

I think that the pictured bait is done using components that we here in the States don't have ready access to. Pigments can differ greatly in the degree of fineness and whether they are white particle or colored particle. Personally I don't play with the pigment brushing unless I am brushing the pigment on a finished bait that will get a cover dip, or if I add pigment to clear plastic that's to be used as a cover dip over , say, a black-backed body. In the latter case only the black back will show the pigment. And to be totally honest I use far more of the pigments with air-brushing than with soft plastic.

I have zero open-pour molds and really have no intention on getting any. I just tried this to say I've tried it. I have no intention of chasing this anywhere.

[olsarge]

Ah, I know what you mean now.  Sorry bout that.  I think that if I were going to try to replicate that particular bait I would probably try to simplify the process somewhat.  Maybe by using my silver fish mold and hand pouring a pearl bottom.  Than close it up and shoot it with clear plastic.  Then just brush on green pearl and dip.  I would only partially fill the bottom so I could have that rear section of the bait clear.  Still a lot of work but might get me close.

[ctom]

The Silverfish mold will let you do that. I have the 1.75" mold and love it. Very versatile

[Cami]

Thank you Sirs, for your interest and for sharing your ideas and experiences.

@ MuskyGary - thank you for your info, in such video Chris showed a dusting tecnique over the inner skin layer, instead I found (as CTom) another video of him in which he showed the real dry brushing inside a silicone mold.

@ CTom - thank you for your trials, I'd love to see your results. I agree with you: Tomy maybe uses several techniques, in series, and yes he uses his own silicone molds, no alluminium, no resin stone ... at least I saw only the silicone ones in his pictures.

@ Olsarge - your technique is similar to that one used by Chris, that is the skin pouring and the inner dusting. Perhaps Tomy realises the angled white belly with this technique, I say it due to the dull pearlescent belly appearance. Instead the back and lateral lines could be realised with a really thinned varnish, coloured with pigments and applied inside the mold with a really thin brush before of clear injection.

... if you like, the brain storming is just started.
Bye

Cami