Hey guys, my son saw a skitter prop in one of my cats this winter and asked me to make one. I can't paint for crap and have never foiled before. It's kinda newbie, but here's my rendition of it. It's my first foil job, so don't laugh too hard.   

Any tips on how I can make this better on the next build would be very appreciative.

Impressive, now just go catch a fish on it and you'll be hooked.

Thanks for the kind posts guys, I really appreciate that. I was nervous about posting this seeing it was my first foil job and all. I hope BIG M can view this thread and maybe give some tips or advice for the next build I do.
 
GET, I fished it once for like 2 casts to see how it sat in the water and retrieved, other than that my 6 year old son will have the honors of catching a fish on it...I hope. He saw this in a catalog and wanted it painted exactly like it showed in the book...LOL
 
grim, the carving and ballasting was the easiest for me to do. The foil part was the hardest for me to achieve. I just flat out never did it before. The only other part that was difficult, for me anyway, was I felt I had to put the prop on before painting the top and applying a clear finish to the bait, so I had to mask and protect the prop as best as possible and still get a good seal around all the components.
 
The only other mistake I made was not applying an epoxy coat on the bait. I ran out of epoxy so I used 3 or 4 coats of clear poly. I'm hoping I can still coat the bait with epoxy.

Looks fine to me, Jig!

Thanks again for the kind posts. 

Thanks Big M!

Questions:
1. yes, primed twice. I saw something I didn't like and fixed the problem and ended up priming it a second time.
2. 3 coats of clear is on at this time. I ran out of epoxy on my last rod build, so I ended up spraying it
3 & 4. mostly towards the back, the lure sat down in the water somewhere between 30* - 45*
5. for the very few casts I made with it, I liked it. I won't really know untill I get him out there with me to fully comment on a yay or nay.

The hook hangers and line ties are epoxied in and also pinned with a small shank piece of a 4d finish nail. I started forming the hook hangers and line tie with SS wire I used for making spinnerbaits, but what I found to work better were snaps. I was able to get the 4d finish nail to catch the inside egde of the curved portion of the snap. I hope I'm making sense here.

Thanks again for your kind post.