Airbrushes

[Roscoe]

Anyone use an airbrush to paint jigs and sinkers? If so, how well do they work? Is a $15 one just as good as the $100 model? Thanks in advance.

[dkooser]

I use a Bosch ($80.00) airbrush. I have found it to be more usefull on spinnerbaits for bass as it is kinda time consuming and cost ineffecient to paint jigs. Allows for some cool blending of colors when painting crawdad jigs (orange on the bottom and brown on top though. It is fun to do and if you have the time, go for it. Recently (last few years) I just have not had the time and dip my jigs. Maybe this winter when the fishing slows I'll have the time to drag my airbrush backout and create some expensive masterpieces.

[Mattman]

For painting jigs a cheap one will do just fine. If you are going to want to be painting crankbaits and Muskie baits I would suggest opting for a more expensive model. A double action brush makes fades and blends much easier. Aztec makes some great brushes. Paasche has been around for a long time and makes a quality brush.

[chadk66]

I have always used an airbrush on Jigs. They dry faster and it doesn't plug up the hook eye. A couple tricks I've learned over the years are as follows. 1- Buy a good airbrush, cheap ones don't cut the mustard when working with thick vinyl paint. 2- I bought a few feet of decorative chain at a hardware store and strung em across my studs in the walls in my garage. String em tight and nail em at each stud. You can hang the jigs by the hooks on every other link to paint them. Paint one side and turn em over and paint the other side. You can also do excellent two tone paint jobs on them this way. 3- I have also used strips of extruded foam approx. 3"x4' long and put little slits in them every inch or so and stood the jigs up in them with the hooks in the slits. This makes it easy to paint them and leave them in there to dry. Man, you can get a couple guys together on a Sunday and whip out 400-500 jigs in a hurry this way. One note of caution, make sure you use good clean lead. I used some lead that was pretty dirty and it ruined the hole in my melt pot. plugged it all up and I drilled it out but it ruined the seal between the plunger and the hole. have fun!