I sure need your help! I’ve tied for several years but haven’t done poppers until now. Do you use brush or spray? Acrylic or other? Do you Clearcoat too? What brands work best? What colors have you been most successful with? Thank-you very much!
what are you making poppers out of? plastic, wood, flipflop etc.
I planed on using cork, I have a bunch free!
You may need some kind of a wood filler for cork to fill any gaps or pores. I usually use regular spray paint with a base coat and a light “dusting” of a top color. I also have not found that painting different colors other than dark or light makes too much difference in how the fish feel about the poppers.
Jim Smith
cork is just wood bark, If you want it to last I would spray them with primer let it dry well then top coat with black, yellow and what ever color the bellies if the local frogs are.
What popper “creations” I do is with balsom wood and I expect about as durable as the cork. What I do for color is the finger nail polish. Not too far from me is one of those Dollar Tree stores and all thier finger nail colors are $1.00 - there’s also some withthe glitter silver or gold flakes which goes good on the underside of the popper. Do manage to catch a few gills and some bass with them.
Hey, like I always say … it’s O.K. for the girls I go with!
Regardless of the type material used for poppers, I dip the body in an epoxy for a smooth base and used COPIC air brush system for color. This product offers dozens of colors. Takes a little practice with the air brush, but well worth it in the end.
I use soft foam for my poppers, and when I paint them, I use regular craft paint and spray cans to paint them. I then use Liquid Fusion to coat them. I stopped using cork because it was harder to work with than the foam.
I seal my cork poppers with epoxy and then paint with acrylic… or not 
This one is made from a test tube stopper.
Amen to what RHenn said about foam being easier to work with and even new flip flops start off at $1 per pair and lots only need highlights because of the array of colors available. Foam bodies are also almost indestructible. I usually spray paint with canned paint, highlights with finger nail polish that used to be cool. I tend to make more other shapes than poppers.
t’s Balsa wood not Balsom wood.
I paint mine with water-based model paint. I seal them with Liquid Fusion. They hold up real well.