While in Dallas for Cotton Bowl got to shop at both Barlow?s and BPS (darn, did not get to Cabela?s). Being a newbie tier, I have been using tying kits to help me up the learning curve. I purchased a WAPSI popper kit at Barlow?s. It is the Tapered, Cupped and Slotted model #4. I saw that the bodies were unpainted styrofoam. Bought two Prismacolor pens there and ?Popper Paint? at BPS.
Got my first couple of ?poppers? done. Tried the paint, ouch! It aint real styrofoam friendly. Found that the styrofoam is very hard and has a coating. Anywho I scuffed the bodies with 250 grit and dunk painted three and pen colored three. Actually like the pen color better.
My question is, where do ya get popper bodies of closed cell foam in the color ya want? The styrofoam is too much to mess with!
I suggest that you look at the articles on this website and seach for the article by Jim Hatch about Dremel Bugs. It is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to get what you’re asking for. Great article and you will find many people on this BB including Jim Hatch that will gladly share their ideas and experience on making Dremel Bugs.
Glue sheets of flat foam together and then cut the boies out of that. Use punches in a drill. or sharpen the end of copper tubing to cut the diamters you want.
Barlow’s also carries the Wapsi soft foam popper bodies. I’ve ordered them from there, last year. I started out using the hard bodied ones but they were a lot heavier the soft foam ones. I use either the preformed soft foam, or buy the foam cylinders and work them to shape with a Dremel Tool.
I buy white ones and use permanent markers color them. One thing with soft foam, you really don’t want to use a hard epoxy on them. They may last forever but if you squeeze them the epoxy cracks. I use a couple different coatings that dry flexible. Angler’s Choice makes one, I think Wapsi has one out also,or you can pick up a clear high gloss varnish/epoxy at your nearest craft store. You need to use two or three coats. All of these dry tough enough to stand up against bluefish.
I bought a pack of foam sheets at the hobby lobby. It was $3.50 for the pack. I glued up all of the color combinations I could think of. It had green, blue, red, yellow, black, and white. I should be able to cut 50 bugs per glue up. I have 7 glue ups from 3 to 5 sheets thick of 2-3 mm sheets.
One of the reasons I like making dremel bugs is that
I am frugal to a fault.G I can get upwards of 200
gill poppers and sliders from a single pair of the
elcheapo flip flops from Wally World. Less than $2
or about a penny each for the shaped body. As was
mentioned above, you can also laminate the different
colors for neat effects. My favorites are the green
or chartruese and white froggies or the black and
yellow bee patterns. But your limited only by your
imagination.G Main thing is to have fun. Good
luck. Warm regards, Jim
The type of paint you use makes a difference. The solvent for lacquer type paint will go after styrofoam. Ordinary oil based paint may do better. It may also go after the foam. “Dope” type paint is lacquer based. The old “Pla” type model paint is oil based.
Some spray type paint is lacquer based, but when sprayed on it can dry so quickly so as not to mess up the foam. I think the “Krylon” paint is lacquer based. It is good paint, and will dry quickly enough that you may be able to use it on the foam poppers. If you do, put it on in thin coats. Also let it dry THOROUGHLY between coats. IE, let it dry for a couple of hours…I know what the instructions on the can say, having used tons of it, but let it dry a minimum of two hours anyway if you use it on foam. Overnight might even be better.
If you do spray, cover the hook and eye with tape.
If you want to use a brush, then acrylic craft paints might be of use to you. Michaels carries them as well as foam sheets (at a fraction of the cost of foam from a fly shop). I would probably give it a good coat or two of the ever-popular Sally Hansens Hard as Nails. I admit that I haven’t gone this route. I’m more of a Sharpie man, myself.
I can echo what EdD just said–I use Michael’s a lot for supplies–their paint department has a lot of reasonably priced acrylic paints in a wide array of colors and lots of inexpensive fine brush packs. Paint your foam popper body with acrylic paint and then I use epoxy to fix it–look in Clouser Flies for good instructions–Clouser takes you through his easy popper step-by-step.
