Guest Report post Posted December 2, 2003 Mark (Chemproff) will be the first to tell us that his scalepoppers are not his original idea, but an idea from an article he read many years ago....however, I have dubbed them "Mark Delaney's Poppers" because I had never seen such a design before Mark introduced it to me and have to call it something! LOL I have been experimenting with the design and materials I use when tying these gret looking flies. I have tied them with regular kitchen variety aluminum foil and foil from cnady wrappers. I have tried mylar sheeting from gift tissue, candy wrappings, and I have tried just about everything I can get my hands on! I love the deep knurled scale patterns you can get with the aluminum foil, but have been struggling with getting the foil on straight and without unnecessary folds or crinkling. It is a very tricky process that requires a lot of patience and a careful attention to detail. I am improving greatly with each fly I tie. But on the suggestion of a scale model enthusiast that I work with, I made a trip to my local hobby store in search of new materials to use in making the fishscale poppers. He suggested I use foil sheeting that it used in detailing models. It comes in a variety of colors including gold, silver, chrome, green, red, and blue. It is self adhesive and very thin. It is real metal foil, just thinner. It still has the great impression qualities as thicker conventional kitchen foils, but is a lot easier to apply to the balse body. I have churned out several poppers with this new material and the results are remarkable...HOWEVER.... I have discovered some drawbacks to using this foil. First, I noticed this morning, much to my dismay, that the adhesive used on the foil does not hold up well under epoxy. I looked at my work and realized that the foil had separated on the top, creating a "crack" in the paint that revealed the balsa body. Apparently, the foil slipped during the curing process and dried separated from its seam. This did not happen in every case, but it happened enough to warrant some serious problem solving. I tired it again this morning and this time used a little CA adhesive at the seam of the foil before I painted the back stripe. This has fixed the problem and the latest poppers are curing as we speak. This tissue thin foil can also be very difficult to peel away from its backing without tearing. I have found that you must use very sharp scissors when cutting the material you need. Any frayed or cross cuts at the edges of the backing will cause the foil to peel unevenly and rip, ruining the entire peice. So be careful when removing the foil from its backing. For those of you, especially the bass and salt water flats fishermen, who haven't tried to tie these amazing flies, do yourself a favor and make some time at the bench! If you are anything like me, you will be glad you did!!!! Thanks to Mark for sharing this great pattern with me...it has bcome one of my very favorites!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Philly 0 Report post Posted December 3, 2003 Big Daddy, try aluminum tape that you can get in any Home Depot, Lowes and I imagine most hardware stores. Another way to get a scale effect is to use either Corsair or EZ Body tubing over the popper body. I do mine over foam bodies. You get a nice 3-D effect by layering your colors as you add material. There's also the net material used to create scale effect on poppers when you air brush them. I glued some to an irridescent crinkle paper and it creates a nice scale effect. Bill Skilton markets a foil that gives a scale effect. Pick up some foiling glue at the craft store. It dries clear and holds material pretty well till you can get it coated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Report post Posted December 4, 2003 great follow up, Philly! Thanks for the additional insight!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Report post Posted December 4, 2003 go to janns netcraft (Janns) on page 16 of their catalog, on the lower lefthand corner there is scale masks. Try em, they work. steve Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Report post Posted December 9, 2003 I will certainly check it out!! Thanks!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites