Too much nail polish is never enough: painted body minnows + 1/32nds & raw Owner jigs

[bombora]

Nursing a brutal hangover (happy new year!) and am capable of doing nothing but put up some pics. Even typing hurts my brain.
These are my favourites to tie at the moment.
All are 1/16th Cultiva minnow heads with no6 Owner hooks. Cultiva Live-Eye eyes in 5mm,except the Sharpie striped olive and white minnow, which has some generic green dome eyes. Nail polish on head and body. Four or five thin coats of Hard As Nails. All except the firetiger, which is Arctic fox, are rabbit.
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This one came out like your baby bass I reckon!
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Firetiger with Sharpie stripes
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This pic shows the flash-tail deal with these jigs. with flash under the hair and just a bit longer than the hair. Pics also don't really show a strand or two of flash around lateral line area.
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The other pics also don't show that all the jigs with white bellies have a little pink mouth. I have no idea why.
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Just realised the pics look like there are tiny bubbles in the Hard as Nail coats, but it's just reflections of stuff in my living room. A plain white jig made in a minute will probably catch just as many fishies but I just like trying to get that seamless head to hair thing with the nail polish. Think I need to have a brain softening swim before it gets dark. Cheers all.

 

[oldfox]

Those jigs are beautiful bombora! Exceptional paint jobs.... Well done! Happy New Year!

 

[toadfrog]

I really like those jigs . They look kind of like wall eye heads . Think you just gave me an idea. Really cool with the dots on the sides . Some of my favorite color combos too .

 

[quivira kid]

Beautiful ties! Some cool painting, too...

 

[LedHed]

Outstanding - very cool tyes

 

[Beagler]

Man them jigs are work of art. Great looking/

 

[StumpHunter]

Beautiful work with the colors!!! Very nice tying. Happy New Year

 

[hunter7711]

Very nice.

 

[BucktailJiger]

Awesome jigs . Exallent colors .

 

[yellowjacket]

those things r PURTTY they almost look alive

 

[AtticaFish]

Beautiful work - the olive/white colors look great and would be my 1st choice. I also like the body shape, lots of inspiration in this post.

......and yes, the spotted jig would match-the-hatch of the bass in my local waters!

 

[cadman]

Beautiful work indeed. Like the bass jigs the best. I assume that those are airbrushed and not powder painted? If powder painted what color is that green?

 

[Fatman]

Great looking jigs 0 never seen a head like that one . The older you get the worse the hangover hurts LOL

 

[bombora]

Fatman it's a day later and I STILL feel like crap!! Not wrong about age and hangovers _ Oh for the days when you could have a big night and get up crack of dawn the next day feeling sweet!!
Thanks for the kind comments. Cadman they are all nail polish. Powder paint and airbrushing don't really mix with a tiny one bedroom apartment!I'd love to have a go at airbrushing as it's a bit of a challenge to do an OK paint job with those flat chunky brushes that nail polish bottles come with.
Smooth finish comes from several coats of head cement after tying to fill in between the 6/0 thread wraps, then three coats of nail polish, then four or five thin coats of Hard as Nails. They aren't for bouncing off the bottom but rather for clear water so nail polish holds up pretty well, and the thread is armour plated!. I tend not to throw these ones near snags.
We get a lot of Japanese tackle in the shops here, mostly the Japanese jigs heads are immaculate but the last lot of these Cultiva heads were a bit average; a lot of flash _ not great pouring.
A coupla more baby bass seeing as you guys were nice to them (they said to say thanks). Was trying for a mix of splodges and dots you get on baby fish, hard to get consistency. There's actually three colours of wascally wabbit: olive, natural and white. Don't think showed well in first pic.
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Toadfrog they do look like Walleye heads I've seen on net. Attica the minnows show better the slightly bulging thread body I was gibbering on about in other thread.
Oversize eyes look cute too!

 

[LedHed]

BB might try a nail head or drill bit for the dots. The jigheads with owner hooks can not be cheap! Great tyes.

 

[bombora]

Hiya Ledhed the cost wasn't too much as the heads were on special. Local retail tackle shops doing it tough against net competition so some good bargains and dollar stays local. But I still fish em more like a pricey stickbait, ha! They don't get thrown at things with teeth!!
I'm always nervous trying to do perfect dots but then decided our baby bass don't have perfect spots! Excellent excuse I think.

 

[Ron Don]

Amazing jigs! Great work!

 

[Fatman]

With the meds I'm on I don't have to worry about it!!!! That's wild, especially with nail polish, basic powder painting is fun enough LOL.

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Very nice ties,that's a ton of work and coats to put on a jig but the results look great. I wish I could find some Owner #6"s. Smallest at my local shop are #4"s and they aren't cheap.

 

[bombora]

Jungle they are an absolute indulgence, but I've not been able to surf for last year _ guaranteed to test sanity _ so have had a LOT of time to tie. Maybe I shouldn't tell ya I've also got some 1/32 Cultiva minnow heads with no8 Owner hooks. They are sweeet.
I should take a pic of both size bare heads, as the multi-coats of nail polish destroy the detail. Love to be able to keep the details like the best powder painters do.