Since there seems to be some interest, here goes:

This is a demo of painting a white crappie pattern on a LuckyCraft FatCB.

The airbrush used is a Harbor Freight special, the paints are Kustom Shop urethanes. Everything I am showing can also be done with water-based paints like Createx.

First, our reference photo, this is on the screen of my IPhone under my bench so I can refer to it as I paint:




Next, make sure your work area is scrupulously clean



The body has had the factory finish removed, coated in adhesion promoter, white and then a couple light coats of pearl white.



The first color is a light pass of candy yellow/gold coming up from the tail and a hint along the cheek.



Next, I mix a green from the same yellow and a blue candy with a touch of black, trying to get it a little on the bluer side. I very lightly establish the stripes along the back.



Next, I paint down the stripes, fading them out at about the center line. I also start working a little more around the eye and gill.



I now take the previous color and make it much darker and bluer. This is the last color needed to complete the pattern. I paint a ton of little dots along the stripes and continuing down a little past them, and a few more on the belly and gill.



Using a stencil, I shade very lightly under the gill plate to give it a little dimension. Go easy here, a little goes a long way




The color I've been using is plenty dark enough in mass tone to do the ear, so that comes next.



Now I just move around the bait, gently darkening areas until I think it looks like a fish. I put the eyes in and lightly shade them as well. This really helps unify them into the bait and keep them from looking so stuck on.



Then it's three coats of 2-part urethane and up on the rack until morning



And then our finished bait



I hope this was of some interest. Who's gonna post the next one?

Happy fishing!