Thompson x2, Leeds

A couple of Microstar repaints here: Alan Thompson in the home kits from his two seasons at Leeds:

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The top one was for my own collection, because I had already done the kit worn by the bottom one on a prostar... for my own collection. You can see that here, if you wish!

No major differences between the two kits; just shirt numbers, and slight differences to the yellow and blue trim!

Here are the kits!

Larsson, Feyenoord

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One of my regulars, who I've been mainly doing Celtic figures for, is also, understandably, a big Henrik Larsson fan!

Because of this, he is also embarking upon a mission to get a Larsson figure done in the kits of all of his previous clubs.

This is one from before his Celtic days; Feyenoord's away colours in the mid 90s.

Larsson played for Feyenoord immediately before he signed for Celtic. He got 42 goals in 149 games for the Dutch club in all competitions.

England, Euro '96

One of the problems that companies have when producing merchandise ahead of tournaments, is predicting the correct squad.

Corinthian got most of England's Euro '96 players, but one collector came to me with the task of filling in the gaps. So...

Here are:

Sol Campbell:

Phil Neville:

And Gareth Southgate:

You can understand the first 2 being missed, as neither played in the tournament, and if I remember rightly, Campbell sneaked into the squad at the last minute anyway.

Perhaps a little more surprising is the omission of Southgate who went on to play every game in the tournament... I forget how it ended for him...

I enjoyed painting these; I had so many in the original Euro '96 kit when I first started collecting, that I enjoyed the challenge of trying to make mine better than the originals! It was nice to have a go at the infamous grey strip too!

One thing I particularly like about these (and I may have mentioned this before about other repaints) is having a spot on shirt number/name font!!

Here are the kits to compare them to:

Cudicini x2, Spurs

Another couple of Cudicinis for my most prolific customer!

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Not sure if you can really tell from the picture, but the top picture has a sort of speckly blue pattern that I enjoyed painting!

The microstar is also pretty neat, in my own opinion!

 

Robinho, Man City

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Here's Robinho in Man City colours.

I don't really have much to say about the repaint to be honest, so this is gonna be one where I do stats from his City career!

He arrived at the Etihad from Real Madrid for around £32 million, and had a pretty good first season; his 14 goals making him City's top scorer.

His second season was full of injury problems though, which resulted in him falling down the pecking order, and eventually seeking a transfer.

I was going to say his has been a career that didn't really live up to its potential... then I saw on Wiki that he has 99 caps for Brazil, so what do I know?! That said, he is currently playing for Gangzhou!

Oh, and back to the repaint... I like the boots!

Robbie Keane x3, Leeds

A trio of Robbie Keane repaints!

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These figures mean that, as far as I can remember, there is only one kit Keane wore for Leeds that I haven't painted him in now!

I have also done a Keane microstar repaint, but I wasn't putting 4 pictures into one post, that would be madness!

The first 2 pictures were orders, while the 3rd, which you'll notice is a different sculpt, was for my own collection... because it's a different sculpt.

Southall, Everton... gloves!

Just a quick post tonight!

A guy approached me on twitter about a paint job involving a Neville Southall figure.

I gave my usual response: No problem... then I found out he only wanted the gloves doing!

My first reaction was that it could be tricky; I'd done boots before, but I felt the gloves could prove slightly smaller, and in a more awkward position.

Nontheless, we agreed a deal, and this is what I did:

... on both gloves, obviously! They also featured blue palms!

I was pleased with them, and more importantly, so was my customer.

I was glad to be able to do the job well, for someone who the gloves are clearly very important to!

Here is a pic of the gloves, for the record!

I've just noticed that this 'quick post' is just as long as pretty much any other post I do!

Johnson, Celtic

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Here's another repaint that has educated me a little; I remembered Tommy Johnson playing for Villa, but had no idea what happened to him afterwards! Now I know he played for Celtic!

I would say this is another example of a fairly simple repaint looking really effective. Nothing was particularly difficult about it, but it ended up looking pretty slick!

According to Wiki, Johnson's spell at Celtic was plagued by injury, but he still managed to pick up a couple of title medals, and score in the 2000 League cup final win. 

In spite of his injury problems, 18 goals in 35 games isn't a bad ratio.

I can't find a picture of Johnson in the kit, so here's one from Historical Kits:

Ginola x2, Spurs

Another day, another post containing 2 pictures of the same player in different kits.

And if that's not a catchy slogan, I don't know what is.

Ginola x2.

Home and away kits. What a fine specimen of a man!

Tacchinardi, Juventus

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A returning customer from Italy means that I have done a reasonable number of Juventus repaints now.

This one, of Alessio Tacchinardi, had to make use of a lookalike figure.

I was pleased with it overall... but don't have much more to say about it!

Tacchinardi played 260 times in his 13 year spell at Juve, and also accrued 13 caps for Italy.

Cooke and Horlock, Man City

The Man City 1999 Play-off final line-up is nearing completion! Here are 2 more of them! Here are:

Terry Cooke:

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and Kevin Horlock:

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I've done this kit quite a few times now! As far as I can remember, all of them apart from Ian Bishop have had to be lookalike figures!

Here's a picture of the kit to compare these to:

This is Horlock. The figure is a pretty good likeness, no?!

Lukaku, WBA

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I've actually done a Lukaku soccerstarz repaint before. A WBA fan saw it, and asked me to do another. 

So I did.

Good story, right!

Here's Romelu in his West Brom days!

Townsend x2, Leeds

A couple of Soccerstarz repaints coming up of a player who wasn't exactly popular during his short loan spell at Leeds:

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Here's Andros Townsend in the home kit from 2011-12. This one was done for one of my regular customers, and was the kit Townsend was wearing when he scored his only Leeds goal; our first in a 3-2 victory against Doncaster.

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Being as I'd already done the home kit, when I got a Townsend figure for myself, I decided to do it in away colours. 

Probably the most noteworthy time he wore this kit was in the FA Cup tie away at Arsenal, when Henry made his return to the gunners. Townsend was one of the few Leeds players to come away from a dull performance with any credit.

And then Warnock sacked him off because of an apparent bad attitude. I could deal with that. 

Warnock sacking off Barkley, because he couldn't guarantee him game time ahead of Michael Brown, however...

                                 

Friedel x2, Spurs

I'd already painted Friedel in Spurs colours before this order came in, but I've got to say, I enjoyed doing these kits more than the plain one I did previously.

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I'm not sure how well it shows up on the photo, but this repaint actually has diagonal stripes, that gradually change colour as they go along. Really effective, in my opinion, and one of the more complex things I've painted. 

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I like this one too! Again, I'd say it's pretty complex for a Microstar, but I was pleased with the result!

Here's Big Brad in the kits:

 

Dublin, Celtic

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To be honest, I'd forgotten that Dublin had played for Celtic until I was asked to paint this!

He didn't play too many games for them, but managed enough to get his hands on a couple of medals. Not bad for 13 appearances in all competitions!

Wiki described his spell at Celtic as including "one or two good performances", so I guess I can be forgiven for forgetting he was there!

I like this repaint- I like how the sponsor looks!

Cole, City

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Here's an Andy Cole repaint, from his Man City days...

Add your own interesting anecdote here.

I'm tired.

Sullivan x2, Leeds

You know the drill by now; if i have two of the same player, I've been putting them in the same blog post. It gives me something to talk about, and also helps me to get through my photo backlog a bit quicker!

So, here are 2 Neil Sullivans:

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I prefer the sculpt of the prostar than the microstar... tho it is a bit neckless! For some reason, I chose the kit Sully wore in the playoff final for this one. Not his, or Leeds' finest hour.

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Sullivan seemed to wear several different kits in his first season at Leeds, all very plain ones... maybe we couldn't afford to hire a kit designer. 

This one came to mind when I decided to paint this microstar of him. 

He was great that first season- thoroughly deserving of his player of the year award. We'd have definitely been looking over our shoulders a bit more without him.

Here he is in both of the above kits:

 

Evra, Juventus

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Here's a recent order that got excellent feedback on the Corinthian Facebook group!

While I was definitely pleased with it, it got loads of likes, and comments from a few saying it's the best one I've done! 

It was nice to do a more modern repaint... but I suppose they'll get rarer and rarer as the players that exist in Prostar form continue to retire!

I'll be able to do soccerstarz, of course, but Prostars are my favourite!

Here's a pic of Evra in the above kit- the one from his first season at Juve.