Painting foam poppers

[lastchance]

Is there a tutorial anywhere on how to paint foam poppers? I'm talking what paint to use, sealer, etc. etc. I've heard you can use anything from finger nail polish to model paint.

[pillcaster]

I dont have a tutorial, but I use an oil based primer I got at Ace (called Rust Stop), let that dry at least 24 hours, then coat with fingernail polish, with a final coat or 2 of 'hard as nails". I have found this to be very resilient on both hard foam and soft closed cell foam. A lot of the sally hansen colors have some sparkle to them. Frankly, a lot of folks dont use any paint and they prob catch fish as well as the painted ones. I made one from alternating black and yellow foam sheets zap a gaped together and it looks fine w/o paint. Of course, those chartpak markers from j stockard do fine, as well as sharpies......
just my $0.02....

[Kaboom1]

Here is a good article on foam poppers in general and the author goes into some detail on painting them. Should work for your poppers.

http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/corner.asp?page=4

Brad

[aged_sage]

Interesting article, with some very good points. However, I totally disagree with the use of any of the CA (super) glues for foam, simply because they become brittle with time, and can result in very stiff bodies. I have bee nmaking bodies from various thicknesses of the so-caledl "Fun Foam" for over 10 years now, and use nothing but one of the various brands (Barge, Pliobond, Weldwood) 'contact' cements. It stays flexible, and never gets brittle. For those of us old enough to remember the days of rubber innertubes in automobile tires, Barge Contact cement was THE glue of choice for doing a 'coldpatch' when one had to fix a flat themselves. You definitely wanted a flexible, non-becoming-brittle glue for such purposes.

[Rick Z]

I don't paint my foam poppers. I put legs and some sort of tail on them.
I fished poppers with spots and stripes and all sorts of other things side by side with plain poppers.
Got as many stikes on the plain poppers.

Rick

[lastchance]

I don't paint my foam poppers. I put legs and some sort of tail on them.
I fished poppers with spots and stripes and all sorts of other things side by side with plain poppers.
Got as many stikes on the plain poppers.

Rick

Hi Rick, What do you mean by plain, all white or all one color? If I don't need to paint them for gills and smallmouth that will save a lot of time and work.

[Uncle Jesse]

If you are going to sell your flies or enter them into a contest, pretty them up. The fish are looking for something to eat not admiring the gloss finish on the underside of the fly. Remember they are unlikely to see much of the top side. Use a permanent felt tip or some of the kind to add spot, etc. and spray it with a clear lacquer.

I have put an epoxy finish on balsa because it is so delicate to abuse and I have been known to mask and spray a scale pattern with a can of spray paint. The truth is I would love to have an air brush so I could make some pretty popper etc., but I really believe the fish don't much care as long as it looks tasty.