How to do a crawfish pattern...

Guys I have decided I want to try the crawfish pattern. How do you guys make your stencils and what do you make them out of? Is there a place to buy them?

thats what I would like to know aslo

you can cut stencils from a variety of materials or if you want to do a simple craw try this. Take some wide blue painters tape draw the pattern outline you like. Take a razor knife and cut along the pattern to create a stencil.

paint the base color on the back an belly whatever you want. Get those good and dry overnight or with a hairdryer. Then take tape and lay out the sections on the first side and spray them one at a time with the second color that will define the sections. spray right down the line the tape forms and you will get a clean line along the tape edge and a feathered look away from the tape. What it should look like is 1/2 of the paint is on the tape and 1/2 on the bait. do the same for the other side. If you need to flip that tape over and trace the reverse of it onto a new piece of tape for the other side so the pattern will match. just heat set that first section before you spray the other side.

The belly you can do the same kind of thing for but I usually just use a straight piece of tape for the belly but the same painting technique. Just line the tape up with the sections you created for the back and spray whatever color you want for the belly accents. A lot of people don't even mess with the belly since it is running down and along the bottom of the lake.

Then you can add dots of paint for accents by just dipping a pin/toothpick and putting dots on where ever you want. Face it there are many versions and patterns for crawdad. Heck look how successful the Rapala Crawdad #5/#7 shad rap is and they don't even have any segments marked. it is mostly about color in my view.

I have heard of some that use clear cups as a stencil. Spray, move, spray, move etc.. I never tried it or have that much patience.. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif

Here is a photo to go with sekoman's instructions. I painted the stripes with tape as he described.
http://i473.photobucket.com/albums/r...g?t=1237510147
http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

sweet, nice job