Ivan, that lure you've made looks easily as good as the store-bought versions I reckon. Stunning paint job you've come up with! Do you shape the poppers on a lathe?
Being an artist/illustrator of sorts, I have recently purchased an Iwata airbrush for my fish paintings (one of which you'll see in the upcoming January issue of Fishing World mag), and I will also be able to use this airbrush for lure painting. With a bit creative masking, and a fine nozzle, I should hopefully be able to create some interesting colour schemes like the example you've provided. Ivan, what types of paint are you using through your spray gun/compressor setup?
Matthew, thanks for the response......are you intending to shape the lures with a lathe? As Stephen has touched on, the paint jobs are probably not as important as we might think, and I reckon that by the time any given lure has been bitten enough times to remove the paintwork, the angler using it has built up enough confidence in the lure that it will continue to get eaten even if the paint is not as dazzling as it was new. That's been the case for me with diving minnows anyway. Some of my best lures have almost no paint left on them, but continue to catch fish because I have results-driven confidence in them.
Cheers lads,
Angus