Cole, Celtic

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OK, so not exactly a Celtic legend, but one for the completist collector! I know understand him wanting to have this painted; I have a Michael Ricketts figure in my Leeds collection!!

I like how this ended up, and it was nice to be able to do Celtic's traditional home colours; considering how many Bhoys figures I've done, I've not done the famous green and white hoops many times.

Carlton Cole appreciated the figure too, well, enough to like and retweet it on Twitter, anyway.

Hinchcliffe, Man City

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You learn things doing repaints! I never knew that Andy Hinchcliffe played for City until I was asked to do this!

It was a fairly straightforward kit to paint, but I think it ended up looking pretty effective.

... and that's about all I have to say for this one!

Here's Hinchcliffe in the kit:

500th Post!

So, I've made it to 500 blog posts!

I thought I'd use this one to look back at some of my first figures, as a way of looking at how far I've come on my repainting journey!

Here we go:

First Prostar:

First Microstar:

First Soccerstarz:

First Fan Fave:

While looking back, I think I always acquitted myself pretty well with new figures, I think I have come a long way!! I can definitely see the improvement, anyway!

At very least, I take clearer photos now!!

I'd just like to thank everyone for all the support and encouragement, whether that's buying a figure, making a positive comment, or even just clicking 'like' on Facebook. It means a lot!

PNE Soccerstarz

Here are two more PNE figures, which I actually finished painting quite a while ago.

I give you Clarke and Gallagher:

Two key players in Preston's promotion and consolidation in the Championship. As you may have expected, lookalike figures had to be used!

This isn't the case with all my Preston repaints tho, as Lindegaard was a soccerstarz release, and let's not forget the prestigious names in North End's past including a young David Beckham and of course the legendary Sir Tom Finney!

EDIT: Almost forgot, Gally had this to say about the figure of himself on Twitter:

Concise!

Leeds Subbuteo tracksuits part 2

I'm on a roll!

I started posting the Leeds tracksuit top XL Subbuteo figures a while back, stating that there were plans for a whole team. Well, here are the next 3!

Apparently it was between numbers 4 and five that I got bored of taking the side on pics to show the sock tags!

Aside from doing different names, I also had to change the hair colour on all 3 of these ones; it starts as a sort of general mid-brown colour on all the XL Subbuteo figures.

Popescu, Spurs

OK, so it's Christmas day, and maybe updating this is a little loserish... but my family are watching call the midwife, and I'm not interested in the slightest!

As you may know, I love the chance to paint a different kind of figure, and here's another of my 'first times'!

This Popescu is a Bandai figure, and started life in a Barcelona kit. I can't tell you much about Bandai figures, to be honest.

This one was fairly similar to a Corinthian Prostar, but was slightly bigger and heavier.

As for the figure itself, well, I've done this kit quite a few times now. I love having the exact right font now! And the slightly bigger figure made for a slightly easier time on the detail painting.

Here's Popescu in his Spurs days:

Japan figures

Well, it has been a while since I've been here, hasn't it?! Very busy time at work, soon to start a new job, performing in a Pantomime, Christmas shopping... and of course painting figures!

Anyway, here are a couple I finished a while back:

A Kagawa Soccerstarz figure, and a Takahara Microstar repainted into Japan kits!

I don't have much else to say about them, I guess I'm out of practice with the blog posts! 

I'll try to do a few more before the year is out!

Yaya, City

Thought I'd post this, as it's topical!

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In a week where Yaya has, in theory, given himself a chance of playing for City again, by apologising to Pep, here's my Yaya Toure repaint!

The socks were the hardest part to repaint!!

And of course, the City obsession with white numbers: Grrr!!

... I didn't add gloves or a snood!

Rose, Leeds

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A repaint of a Leeds great that never was!

Danny Rose came through the Leeds Academy, and enjoyed a brief moment in the limelight at Elland Road after turning down the advances of Chelsea to stay at Leeds.

I even remember his name being chanted at the next home game, where he was an unused sub!

That was the closest he got to Leeds' first team; he eventually joined Spurs before making any kind of first team appearance at Elland Road.

Still, that isn't going to stop me from doing a figure of him, is it?!

He joins the likes of David Seaman, John Scales, Micah Richards, Jari Litmanen, Sami Hyypia and John Arne Riise as players I've repainted in Leeds kit who never made a competitive first team appearance!!

Even finding the links to add above has reminded me of non-first team repaints I've done; Testimonials only for Platini, Scirea and Dalglish!

Toure, Celtic

My most up to date Celtic repaints incoming!

 Kolo Toure joined Celtic from Liverpool this summer, and as a result, here are a pair of repaints of him in both home and away Celtic kits.

I quite enjoyed doing the traditional home shirt; even though I have done quite a few Celtic repaints, many of them have been in outlandish away kits!

The original plan was to get a third Toure figure, and do one in the bright pink away kit!! It may still happen, if I can find any fluorescent pink model paint at a reasonable price!

Mortensen, Blackpool

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Here's another Blackpool repaint, where the player definitely falls into the legend category.

As in proper legend, not the modern complete mis/overuse of it. I genuinely got described as a legend in Aldi the other day for packing my shopping away quickly. But I guess that isn't really important to this post.

Stan Mortensen rightly has a place in Blackpool folklore, and in the history of the English game. He scored 23 times in just 25 games for England, and played so well to score a hat trick in the 1953 FA Cup Final that it's now widely known as "The Matthews Final"!

Anyway, this is another case of a simple old style kit ending up looking really effective. 

As a lookalike figure was used, I also had to change the name on the base.

Hugo Lloris

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I always enjoy the chance to repaint different styles of figure. I've done Soccer Series, Tonka figures and Vivid Imaginations figures before, but this is my first 'My Figurine' repaint.

The kit chosen looked pretty straightforward... until I noticed those sleeves!

I enjoyed the challenge of it tho, and managed to keep those bands pretty straight! I also added the captain's armband.

This figure even got a 'reveal' video on the collector's facebook page, Benedict Hotspur!

Billard 2, Sheff Weds

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Here's my second custom 'Billard' figure... son of the first, in case you were guessing!

For this one, I helped the customer choose a suitable 'lookalike' figure, and then she chose the details, such as specific kit, shirt number, and names- both on the back, and on the base.

I'm told it went down well!

If you would be interested in a similar custom figure as a gift for someone, or a treat for yourself, get in touch by commenting, or via Twitter or Facebook!

Leeds Subbuteo, away

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While there are plenty more of these XL Subbuteo figures to come, this is one of the ones that started the trend!! 

Getting this one repainted led to the idea of the full Leeds 1970s XI tracksuit project that I am now underway with (which started with these)

This was a very interesting one for me to paint, as I actually own this shirt! I even have the number 4 sewn on the back!

Who could possibly have inspired that?!

Donnelly, Celtic

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Well, here's an unusual post; a Celtic away kit one, where I'm not commenting on how the strip is considered one of the ugliest they've had!

This black and mint-green pinstriped number is positively tasteful, compared to some of the others!

Here's a picture of it, via historical kits:

Boateng, City

Can you tell that I've been busy recently?!

I suppose this being only my 3rd post in September goes hand in hand with working in education!

Anyway, sorry for the lack of posts recently. Here's one!

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Here's one of the players you would imagine Man City wish they hadn't let go!

On account of being plain, this was a fairly easy repaint; I guess the most difficult part was the socks! 

Have you all been missing information like that?!

More posts soon, hopefully!

Berbatov, Spurs 125th Anniversary

I really like how this one turned out!

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Maybe I liked it so much because it was something a bit out of the ordinary to paint; I enjoy unusual kits, especially when doing them for the first time!

The customer requested that I make this into a long sleeve shirt, which I also liked, as it gave me the chance to do the 'opposite' sleeves!

Yeah... good one, this!

Haaland, City

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I've painted Haaland figures into a couple of different Leeds kits before; this is the first time I've been asked to do him in City colours.

The kit was fairly simple- the details around the colour and cuffs providing the biggest challenge! 

I think it ended up looking pretty slick overall! Even the white writing shows up fairly well, as much as I'm not a fan of white fonts on sky blue shirts!

Alfie must have thought it looked ok too, as he liked it on Twitter:

Pringle, PNE

Here's a repainted Soccerstarz figure of Preston North End's new signing, Ben Pringle:

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As with all the recent PNE repaints (bar Lindegaard) a lookalike figure had to be used for Pringle.

The customer chose it himself, and I've got to say, he did a good job! The only thing I had to do was lighten the hair... and repaint the kit, of course.

Pringle responded to a picture of this repaint on twitter!

Short and sweet!!

If you'd like a figure of a player that has never been produced, get in contact; maybe we can find a lookalike, and sort out an unlikely figure!

Leeds Subbuteo Tracksuits, 1-3!

On my first post about an XL Subbuteo figure, I think I said that there were more coming...

So here are 3 of them!

Shirt numbers 1, 2 and 3 would be on show here, if theses players weren't wearing Leeds' iconic 1970s pre-match tracksuit tops! 

As it is, all of them have their numbers on show on another unique part of the Leeds kit of the 1970s: the sock tags. Unfortunately, they can't be seen on these pictures; you'll just have to take my word for it!

There are only minor differences to all of these repaints. The sock tag numbers have been mentioned already, but I also adjusted hair colour, and added the moustache on David Harvey! The names on the tracksuit backs are different too, of course.

As I said when painting a Costa Rica World Cup Squad a while back, there is something satisfying about completing a full set or squad of players... more of these to come!!

Here's a pic of some of the greats wearing this tracksuit, ahead of the Charity Shield match with Liverpool.

van Hooijdonk, Celtic

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Here's another kit that I'm running out of things to say about!!

I've done it a few times now, and if you've read my previous posts about it, you'll know that it's widely considered as one of the worst kits in Celtic history!!

You'll also know that I enjoy the challenge of painting a more complicated kit.

One additional challenge that is starting to arise, particularly with this kind of complex kit, is keeping it consistent, especially when I'm doing the figures as part of different orders. I think I've done ok so far. I keep photos of every repaint I've done, so there are always pictures to refer to as well!

Here's a picture of the kit in real life:

Spurs, Brown kits

You've seen this kit enough times for me to not have to say too much about it now! (if you follow my blog or Facebook page anyway!)

Here are a few Prostar figure versions of Spurs lil chocolate brown number, in shirt number order, of course!

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Here's a pic of the kit... as if you need to see it!

(Pic via historical kits)

"Billard", Wednesday

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Here's another custom, personalised figure that was requested as a gift.

I worked with the customer to identify a suitable lookalike figure, and then he chose the kit, the shirt name and number and the name on the base.

I used a recent photo to make additional changes such as a beard, change of eye colour, and add some small sections of white to the hair (the customer said I'd been quite generous with the amount of white- or lack of it!!)

Anyway, if you'd like a similar present for someone you know, or just a figure for yourself, get in contact!

Click here for Twitter, here for Facebook, or just leave a comment below.

Kinkladze Tonka Figure, Man City

My first Tonka figure repaint!

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This wasn't actually a Kinkladze figure, but who can blame any Man City fan for wanting a figure of him?!

The fact that the body of the figure was bigger than a standard Corinthian made painting pretty straightforward.

As you'll know, if you read regularly, I love when little details are spot on, so the top of the socks, and the collar are my favourite parts of this one... not to forget the correct shirt number font!!

I also added 'Kinkladze' to the base of the figure.

Do you have a Tonka figure that would like repainted into a new kit, or even a completely new identity?! Get me here, or on Facebook or Twitter!