Leeds Trialists: Microstar version!

A while back, I did a blog post about the repaints of some players that had only played on trial for Leeds United, in friendlies or reserve games.

Since then, I have started running out of Leeds Prostar repaints to do, and moved on to Microstars! As my Microstar options started to run out, I thought I might as well do the trialists in that style of figure too!

So, here we have 2 players that went on to become household names playing for Liverpool, in unfamiliar white shirts!

I did them in the same shirts as the Prostar versions, because, I think I'm right in saying, these are the only kits they wore for Leeds!

The only change I made was using Riise's trademark number 6, instead of number 3. My theory is that, he probably wore 3, as I think Leeds were considering him as a left back, rather than midfielder.

Hopefully, at least one of the repaints bears the right shirt number!

Caicedo, City

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I'll be honest; without a quick look at his Wiki page, all I could tell you about Caicedo's Man City career was that he played for them.

At a push, I  might have described him as a 'Powerhouse striker'!

A bit of research revealed that he signed for them in 2008, and scored 8 goals in all competitions that season. He was basically forced out when City went all big time with their signings!

He went on several loan spells before eventually joining Lokomotiv Moscow.

I like this repaint. The details on the front turned out well, and you all know that I favour dark blue or black numbers to white on the back of shirts! Even the name on the base looks clearer than normal for a thin base!

Here's the shirt, from a recent (and very useful) discovery on a Man City fan site:

Gazza, Vivid Imaginations Figure

If you follow my blog or Facebook page with any regularity, you'll know that I have repainted more than my fair share of Spurs figures in recent times!

You'll also know that I enjoy the chance to try something different, in terms of figures!

This one gave me a chance to do both!

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I've only done one Vivid Imaginations Figure before (here, if you want to see it) so I enjoyed this! 

The larger size of the figures makes the finer details easier to do; even applying the transfers is easier!

The hardest part, for some reason, was re-doing the name tag on the base! The decal kept on going wrong, but I got there in the end!

This figure was painted in a different kit than I usually get requested for Gazza; I actually suggested it, because the figure has a very visible collar, which made it suit the 91-93 kit more than the FA Cup final kit I usually get asked for!

Here's Gazza in the kit, as repainted above:

Get in touch if you have and would like a Vivid Imaginations Figure repainted... or even if you don't have one, but like the idea! I may be able to help you source one!!

England, Italia '90...part 2!

I started the Italia '90 England repaints with this post.

Here are the next 3 figures:

I give you Peter Beardsley, Gary Lineker and John Barnes. I couldn't help but post these England repaints in number order!

This was, of course, England's most successful tournament of modern times (considered modern by oldies like me, anyway) and these 3 players featured in England's line-ups fairly heavily.

Of the 3, I think it's fair to say that Lineker had the best tournament; starting every game, and ending up with 4 goals, 2 behind the golden boot winner Schillaci.

...

It's probably best that I didn't do a little tournament summary on my last England Italia 90 post, which included Waddle and Pearce!

Here's the kit:

Christmas Present for Leeds?!

Can you imagine if Leeds did come up with a Christmas present like this for their fans?!

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Of course, the transfer window system means he won't be signed in time for Christmas. 

We could do with him too, thanks to Sky and their ridiculous changes to our fixture schedule...

This was actually a present for a young Leeds fan, whose favourite player is Neymar!

For some reason, I couldn't find a picture of him in a Leeds kit...

Here are Lewis Cook and Charlie Taylor, who are both pretty much as good as him anyway:

By the way, in case you wondered, this figure isn't a regular prostar. I think it's a Kodoto, but I'm not certain. Anyone know?!

Sutton, Celtic

Latest Celtic repaint:

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Yet again, I got to do a Celtic away kit; I'm certainly getting plenty of variety from this Celtic fan!

This was a fairly straightforward repaint, to be honest. It was the first time I used my gold paint on a kit, though!

I've only used it on boots and bases before!

This kit was from the 03-04 season, which was, according to wiki, arguably his best season at Celtic. He got 19 SPL goals, and was voted SPFA Player of the year.

Here's the shirt:

Kalou, Soccerserie

So here's my second Soccerserie figure repaint; Salomon Kalou in Chelsea away kit:

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I suppose, in terms of commenting on the actual painting of this figure, I'd echo the comments I made about the last one; I enjoyed it as a learning experience, it used more paint(!) and the size made it a bit easier to paint the details.

I'd also say that, on this particular figure, the head is way too small!! Maybe I've just painted too many corinthians!!

Here's the kit, modeled by Lampard!

If you have a Soccerserie figure that you'd like to have repainted, get me on Facebook or Twitter.

Platini... Leeds?!

While I think it was somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, I recently rediscovered that Michel Platini played in a Testimonial Game for a Leeds United XI.

This, along with the fact that Corinthian made a couple of Platini figures, and I'm always on the lookout for new Leeds figures to make had inevitable results:

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One Fan Favourite figure + one Prostar = 2 figures of a player that played one game for Leeds!!

Keep your eye on the blog, and my facebook page for more repaints of the players that featured in the John Charles/Bobby Collins testimonial!! 

...This picture offers a clue as to who else I might have repainted...

Bale x2, Spurs

Here we have a brace of Bales!

Two different figures were used for these repaints; a microstar, which is more similar in appearance to Bale in his early Spurs career, and a Soccerstarz, which is in the black and grey kit.

The main memory I have of the black and grey kit is Spurs FA Cup defeat at Leeds!! 

England, World Cup '90, Part 1

So, here's the next part of the England tournament full squads project! Italia '90 players incoming!

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Fun to paint, this kit, and I got plenty of practice; keep your eye out for more England World Cup 1990 posts!

I particularly enjoyed doing the bit inside the collar, and the bits on the sleeves!

Any Corinthian aficionados will also notice that the Chris Waddle figure has been remodelled! Very proud of the mullet I managed to craft!

Waddle liked it too, on twitter!

Oh also, because you know I have a bit of an issue with detail... England didn't wear names on shirts at Italia '90; just squad numbers, 1-22. I asked my customer what he preferred, and he asked for names too.

Robben, Bayern Soccerserie.

I'm always keen to paint different types or brands of figures when I get the chance, so when one of my regulars asked me about repainting a couple of Soccerserie figures, I was keen to give it a go.

Here's the result:

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As you can see, it's Arjen Robben, with a little more hair than we've become accustomed to seeing him with, in Bayern kit!

I enjoyed painting it a lot! In some ways, painting bigger figures is easier, on account of details and lines not having to be as thin.

As with the Wanchope Vivid Imaginations figure I did, one of the more time consuming elements of this one was the fact that it's originally shiny finish made it need more coats of paint than a standard Prostar, and a little more care to ensure an even finish.

Overall tho, I was delighted with it! Gladly, my customer was too!

Here's the shirt, to compare it to:

Keep your eye on my blog for more Soccerserie repaints in future! One definite, 2 maybes!!

John Charles x2, Leeds

Two repaints of a bonafide Leeds United legend coming up!

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I actually painted the all white one of these almost a year ago, at the same time as I did this one, but haven't got round to posting the pic until now! 

While it is the plainest repaint I have ever done, I like it! The picture in the middle is always the first one I think of when I think of John Charles, and that's why I painted it really.

The top one was for a customer, and he wanted the 42 goal season kit! Who can blame him for that?!

Vassell, City

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Here's a repaint of Darius Vassell in his time at Man City.

From memory, I thought Vassell's spell at City was pretty good, but a quick look at his wiki would suggest that he wasn't much to write home about. 

He managed a fairly underwhelming 22 goals in 4 seasons, albeit with injury problems and the managerial merry-go-round to deal with.

He moved to the Turkish premier division when his City contract expired.

Juninho, Celtic

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Here's the latest in my run of Celtic (usually away kit!) repaints!

I did this kit before on a Craig Bellamy figure, so there were no difficult surprises when it came to doing this one.

The only minor problem was the arm and hand being attached to the side of the figure; this pose means a bit more care has to be taken to make sure paint doesn't go on the arm!

I also had to mix this bluey-green, but it didn't take too long!

I can't find a pic of Juninho in this kit, so here's the shirt!

Okocha, Nigeria; World Cup '94

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Here's an international repaint: JayJay Okocha in Nigeria's infamous 'money' kit from the World Cup of 1994.

I enjoyed painting this; the intricate details gave me a challenge!

What I did not enjoy was the guy who asked me to do it not replying to my messages when I sent him the picture of it finished. That's the only time something like that has happened because, fortunately, most of my customers are lovely!

So with that in mind, if anyone wants this figure, it is available! Comment below, or get me on facebook or twitter if you're interested!

... it's the one on the right!

Saha x2, Spurs

Another Prostar/Microstar combi post!

This time the subject is Louis Saha:

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These figures were for 2 different customers, but the same kit was requested... thinking about it, Saha probably didn't play in many kits for Spurs anyway.

Another repaint where it can be said that a very simple kit looks pretty effective.

Here's a photo of the real Saha for comparison:

England, France '98 Squad Building!

As I think I mentioned in my Euro '96 post, companies that make any kind of International tournament product always have to play a bit of a guessing game when it comes to the final squads!

Here are 5 England players that Corinthian didn't originally paint into England's kit for France '98.

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Yeah,.. I had to put them in number order!

You'll notice all are home kits except Owen. England wore the red kit in the 2-0 victory over Colombia that ensured qualification into the knockout stage. 

Personally, I would have gone for the all white that he was wearing when he scored the solo goal against Argentina, but I was glad to have the chance to paint the red kit. I like the subtle, slightly darker stripes that it had!

You'll also know that I'm a sucker for spot on shirt number fonts, which we have here!

Interestingly (to me anyway!) the away kit used a different name/number font than the home!

Here are the kits, to compare them to... including the goalie kit, which I did in this post, if you're interested!!

Woodgate x2, Leeds

There were 2 different Microstar sculpts of Jonathan Woodgate

Surprisingly, there was no Prostar release of Woodgate, but there was a Fan Favourite figure, which I have previously repainted on a couple of occasions.

Here they are, repainted into Leeds United kits:

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The first one is part of my own collection, and it is based on Woodgate's appearance in the earlier part of his career; that's why I chose it.

The second one looks more like he did in his time at Spurs/Middlesbrough, if I remember rightly.

The kit chosen for both figures is the one worn in our Champions League run!

Musampa, City

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I love this sculpt!

I used it as a lookalike figure myself, to add a Habib Habibou figure to my Leeds collection!

It's also been used as a lookalike here, to recreate Man City's Kiki Musampa.

This is the first time I've painted this dark blue away kit, and I think it came out pretty well.

The dreadlocks meant that I couldn't fit the name on, without the no.14 looking too small, hence the nameless shirt!

"Green", Man Utd

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Here's a 'lookalike' repaint that I did as a novelty birthday present recently!

Someone contacted me with a picture of a loved one and asked if I could do a figure as them. 

As part of the service, I found a shortlist of possible 'lookalikes' and along with the customer discussed which one was best, and which details (hair colour, eye colour, beard etc) needed to be changed.

She asked for his preferred kit, shirt number and boots too.

You can see the result above!

The customer was really pleased with it, so I was pleased too!

The only downside? He was a Man United fan!!

In case you're unsure of what the real kit looks like, here it is:

If you would like a similar service to this, just comment below, or get me on Facebook or Twitter.