Masterbox Zombie figures

I'm still at a crossroads with the hobby especially after the latest disaster with the Airfix C-47 and I'm very wary of starting another build until I get back my ability and/or confidence to airbrush models. I'm still capable (I think) of using a brush to paint with so I've come back to this set of Masterbox figures just for sh*ts and giggles.
The motorbike and male zombie figure are ready for priming, the female bike rider was ready but I've got an idea to change the kit supplied head for a Hornet item;

The female figure needed a fair bit of work as the coat tails supplied in the kit just did'nt fit properly especially around the bike seat so I made new ones from Magic Sculp putty. The hands and arms needed some chopping and changing to fit the handle bars and point the gun.
I've adapted the bike to be more civilian-like and it will be painted in pretty colours rather than green (providing I don't bugger it up).
Anyway the biggest model show in the UK is just around the corner and no doubt I'll see something shiny and new but this is an ongoing project with no time frame or urgency to finish so there will be random posts in between the tanks and aircraft...that's if I start any

Airfix C-47; Scratch another model and file under B (for bin)

I give up! The model has been niggling me since I started but after giving it a coat of matt varnish it has showed up just how rough the finish is, plus for some unexplained reason the areas that I used Johnsons Kleer for the decals are really prominent and something that has NEVER happened to me before;

So that's that! I don't intend to do anymore to the model other than use it as a test subject so sorry fans if you were looking forward to seeing it finished.
The other problem is that I am now reluctant to start another aircraft model due to the issues I'm having with finishing them.

Airfix C-47; Decals going on but.....

One of the problems with white decals is that they can be transparent and if I had remembered this I would have made a mask for the national insignia and painted the areas beforehand. Because I had forgot this happened;

You can clearly see the black of the invasion stripes showing through so the two options open to me were to make a mask and spray the white areas or put decals over the top (I chose the latter). The original decals came from an Xtradecal set printed by Hannants so I put the kit decals over the top and at the time of writing they appear to have bedded down well. There were quite a lot of little stencils on the Airfix decal sheet but I've only used those for the upper surfaces.
When I get the matt varnish on I can start weathering the model but I'll try to avoid too much 'post-shading' otherwise I'll just get a slagging for it :o)

Airfix C-47; Stripey!

The invasion stripes are now painted, all I have to do is mask them off again and respray the green base coat as the stripes on the top of the wings and upper fuselage on this particular aircraft were overpainted pretty soon after D-Day;

As with the white, the black (Tamiya XF-1) was toned down using a drop of Deck Tan otherwise it would be too stark.
The de-icing boots on the leading edges of the wings will be masked and painted next and then it'll be ready for glossing and decalling

Airfix C-47; Finally the base colours are on

After rubbing down the model with micromesh I resprayed it and this time put a couple of drops of acrylic retarder in the mix, after which the paint sprayed much better. Again I used a mix of Tamiya Olive Green and Flat Earth but don't ask me in what ratio as I just added brown to the green until I had a decent shade of Olive Drab (in my mind anyway).
Tonight I masked off the areas for the invasion stripes and painted these with Mr Hobby white with a dash of light grey to tone the white down;

On my next days off I'll paint the black stripes and de-icing boots on the wings and tail fin then get it gloss varnished ready for the decals.

Airfix C-47; Painting it (or attempting to)

Obviously it's going to be one of THOSE models. I sprayed the undersides without any issues, masked the model then applied the top colour. I was'nt happy with the mix of paint (Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-52 Flat Earth) plus the paint had gone grainy on the wing roots. I gave the model a quick rub down when dry and mixed up some XF-58 Olive Green and XF-52 with some X-22 Clear thrown in and I ended up with this;

Yep the paint is still grainy and it also highlighted the areas that had been rubbed down (badly by me) so it's going to be left alone while I think about it. Oddly enough after cleaning the airbrush of green paint I decided to matt varnish the Trumpeter E-25 with Mr Color and I had all sorts of issues in the past with frosting and grainy finishes however this time it sprayed perfectly. Weird!