Popper Painting

[John Williams]

What do you all recommend for painting popper heads?
I was looking into the copic system but it is just a little pricey for my taste. Looking for suggestions that are on the minimally expensive side as I won’t be tying a large volume of these.
Thanks
JW

[kurt albin]

Plain acrylic paint is what I have been using.  I threw in a sparkle glaze on this one.  I thought about the airbrush markers but decided $1.27 per color of acrylic was much easier to swallow.  I may not be able to create a perfect fade/bleed for transitioning colors but I don’t think that will affect the utility of my poppers from the fish’s standpoint.

[Bob Riggins]

I usually use Krylon spray paint.  Unless you are tying them for show, no need to get real fancy.

[lee terkel]

It’s funny, I am a bit of a perfectionist so I hate tying flies that don’t look “perfect” but I agree…. the fish could care less.

[Zach Matthews]

Preval Sprayer.

http://www.preval.com/what-is-preval

You can use almost any kind of paint and the sprayers are like $9 at Home Depot.

Use various kinds of lace to make patterns.

[gavin poppen]

Dip it in a can of paint…let the excess drain off..clean the eye and hang it to dry.

[Curtis Bias]

I picked up two airbrush compressors and 4 airbrushes, tips, glass jars etc. for a very low cost at a surplus sale at our local school board. The airbrushes function perfectly and some of the equipment looked new. I also picke dup a printing press from the same sale for next to nothing. The press was still in the original packaging. The invoice was dated 1979. The same press costs $1000 now. I got it for $25.- You could try checking with a vocational school or your local school board to see if they have any surplus airbrush equipment. You might get lucky.

[Giles Blencoe]

Most of the time I just use colored foam or flip flop and don’t worry about coloring. When I do paint, I have found colored nail polishes work really well, plus you don’t have to worry about brushes as its already in the bottle. Sally Hansen has some great colors for poppers. Just have to deal with the funny looks you get when buying a bunch of nail polish

[Shannon Drawe]

I use Copic air brush. Once you are weaned off the canned air, it’s pretty darn economical. It’s all a labor of love anyway – poppers are just not economical to home produce.

[Mike Simmons]

http://guysfliesandpies.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-i-made-my-copic-air-can-refillable.html?m=1

I made my copic can reusable so I didn’t have to buy more cans or a compressor.

[John Williams]

Thanks for all the input gang. I finally went with the Prevail system as it was a good fit for other projects and could spread the cost to the “things for the wife column” instead of the My fishing stuff column.

[Jeremy Clark]

I made my copic can reusable so I didn’t have to buy more cans or a compressor.

Genius!!!

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