England, World Cup 2002

The last 2 England World Cup 2002 repaints:

(click to enlarge)

In my memory at least, Nicky Butt was one of the stand-out performers for England in this World Cup. He probably wouldn't even have been starting were it not for Gerrard's injury, but one of my clear memories of this World Cup is of him bossing the midfield for England; quite an admission for a Leeds fan!

James was very much there as back up... it didn't really come as a surprise when he didn't make it onto the pitch. The kit was quite a simple, but also effective repaint!

I couldn't find a decent image of James in this kit, so here's one of Seaman!

'Marcus'

OK, so here's one that I actually did ages ago, but rediscovered the picture of in the 'repaints' folder on my desktop!

A bit different this one; someone approached me about doing a rugby player as their son, as a Christmas present. 

While I was doing it, they asked if I could do one for their other son, who didn't particularly like football or rugby! I suggested just doing one in his favourite colours.

They were happy with that, and it ended up like this; red and blue, his name on the base, and name and age on the back!

If you would like something similar, let me know! Get in contact with me by commenting on this post, on Twitter or on Facebook.

Anderton, Spurs

(click to enlarge)

I generally enjoy getting the chance to do new kits for the first time. This one was no different!

Look at it in all its brash, asymmetric patterned 1990s glory!! 

It also gave me chance to use a different number font for the first time... yep, I actually pay attention to that kind of thing. Cool, no?

I was pleased with how it turned out!

Gradel, Leeds

While I have done a few Leeds players of recent years, there haven't been that many that actually merited it!! This guy really did:

(Click to enlarge)

It looked like it might all end in tears for Gradel at Leeds, when he was sent off on the day we needed to win to secure promotion. Luckily, Jermaine Beckford stepped up, and the rest was history!

Gradel was outstanding the next season, grabbing (stats from memory!) 17 goals and numerous assists from a midfield position in our first season back in the championship.

The only reason it did end in tears was when Ken Bates sold him for a handful of loose change, and then we replaced him with Danny Pugh. Sigh.

I had to use a lookalike figure to make this figure... though can't help but wonder if Bournemouth keep performing, there might be a Soccerstarz version of him at some point in the future.

Anyway, I'm getting misty eyed, so that's quite enough of my musings on Max. Here's a picture of him:

(He's the one on the left)

Klose Soccerserie, Bayern

A while back, I painted my first Soccerseries figures. Recently I was offered the chance to paint a couple more! 

Here's the first:

(Click to enlarge)

Another Bayern Munich one!

I was pleased with how it turned out!

Miroslav Klose played 149 games for Bayern in all competitions, scoring 53 goals. A pretty good record at a little over 1 every 3 games.

Here's the picture of the real Klose in the kit:

Another Bayern Soccerserie coming soon!

A Pair of Whitleys! Man City

As they're brothers, and they're in the same kit, I thought I'd pair the Whitleys up for this post!

Jim and Jeff:

(Click to enlarge)

In a kit that I've previously painted onto Peter Beardsley, here are the Whitley brothers!

City wore this kit between 1997 and 1999; quite an eventful period in the history of the club! 

I tweeted these pictures to Jim Whitley, and he loved them! Actually got into a bit of a conversation with him about them, which ended up with him following my twitter account!

Here are a couple of the things he had to say:

And here are Jeff and Jim Whitley in the kits painted above:

 

England, World Cup 2002, part 2!

Next 2002 World Cup post, 3 more players!

This latest few England figures, comprising of one Fan Favourite figure, and 2 prostars. Put up in numberical order, naturally!

It's a nice little kit to paint, this; relatively simple, but with enough extra details to keep me interested!

All 3 of these players went to the 2002 World Cup very much as understudies, and it shows in the amount of game time they got between them.

Bridge made it on as sub a few times, but realistically had no chance of ousting Ashley Cole from the starting line-up, while Keown and Southgate offered experienced back up, but were never likely to start ahead of Ferdinand and Sol Campbell.

Here's Bridge in the kit... not sure if this photo was taken at the World Cup or not!

Larsson, Helsingborgs

In my post about a Hogaborgs Larsson figure, I mentioned that the Larsson repaints were getting more obscure!

While more people may have heard of Helsingborgs than Hogaborgs, it's still a far more unfamiliar repaint than the Feyenoord and Barca ones!

(click to enlarge)

At least I could find a colour picture to go off for this one!

It's a good job too, as I don't think I'd have guessed the pretty random coloured areas around the sleeves, which were a highlight of mine painting this one!

Lloris x2, Spurs

One of Spurs star performers in recent times; Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris:

Lloris soccerstarz have been released in Spurs colours, but one of my regulars decided he wanted him done in c couple more different kits!

The light blue one is the kit that the Friedel soccerstarz was released in, and deduced from the shirt number, is an older kit than the grey one!

I don't have much more to say about these two, to be honest!

Here's Lloris in the grey kit... I can't find a picture of him in the blue!

John Charles/Bobby Collins Testimonial

It may seem strange, but this post will feature neither John Charles or Bobby Collins figures!

Followers of my blog or Facebook page will have already seen a couple of Michel Platini Leeds figures, which were also from this testimonial game.

The pull of John Charles meant we could attract some big stars from Juventus, and put them in a team with our own up and coming stars.

Here's a mixture of both!

Ok, so Sheridan was just a general repaint for a customer, but he wore that kit and shirt number in the Testimonial, so that's why he's included here!

The interesting thing about Rush (who was at Juve at the time) is that he came to Leeds later in his career, of course. Perhaps even more interesting; he scored more goals for Leeds in this one game then in his spell as a permanent signing!

David Batty completes the line-up in an unfamiliar number 11!

2 More figures to complete this set... I'll post the pics when I've done them!

Robbie Keane, Celtic

Doing Leeds figures for myself, having a regular customer who supports Spurs and another who is a Celtic fan makes it feel like I've done loads of Robbie Keanes! Here's the latest!

(click to enlarge)

I'm quite proud of this one! As I'm sure I've mentioned in previous posts, getting the numbers lined up perfectly on striped or hooped shirts can be tricky. Throw in the problems that white numbers can cause, and I think I have reason to be pleased with how it looks!

I love the socks, too!

My Celtic regular has given me so many interesting kits to do! Long may it continue!

Here's a pic of the kit, from historical kits:

England, Euro 2000: The last bit!

Three more England Euro 2000 figures, including one Microstar goalie!

Corinthian never made a Prostar sized Richard Wright figure, so my customer compromised with this micro to complete his Euro 2000 set!

Not a great tournament for England... or any of these three personally.

Barmby got on as sub in a couple of games, but for the other 2, it was a case of being well down the pecking order; Shearer, Owen and Heskey were all ahead of Fowler, while Wright had the unenviable task of trying to displace David Seaman and Nigel Martyn.

If you've checked out my other Euro 2000 posts, you'll have seen the kit plenty of times, so I've decided to only include a picture of the goalie kit here:

This picture comes from an article entitled: Players who got injured in the warm up!

Tevez, City

(Click to enlarge)

Love this one!

A Carlos Tevez Man City away kit repaint.

Funnily enough, when I first started repainting, a Tevez Man City figure was one of the first ideas I had as a figure to do for ebay! I've still got the decals I made in my box, 3 years later!

I never found a Tevez figure for a price I was willing to pay until recently, but this was actually a request from one of my regulars!

Like I said, I love how it turned out! Painting stripes, and getting the sponsors, badges and shirt number to line up is technically pretty hard, so I'm always pleased when it comes off!

400th post!

Well, who'd have thought this little hobby that I took up about 3 years ago would get to this stage?!

Tens of brushes worn out, loads of empty paint cans, hundreds of figures repainted, thousands of blog views and now a 400th post on here!

I'd just like to take this chance to thank everyone for the support, be that buying a figure, liking a post on facebook or even just following me on twitter- all the support and encouragement really does mean a lot!

What better way to mark my 400th post than with some top quality photos, taken by my friends at Eighth Avenue Photography!

(Click to enlarge)

Obviously these are some of my favourites, but they were taken over a year ago, so I have formed some new favourites and, if I say so myself, completed some even better paint jobs since!

Thanks everyone!

Modric x2, Spurs

Another 'home and away' post; this time for a couple of microstars:

Luca Modric, in his Spurs days.

Irwin x2, Leeds

Denis Irwin, in his Leeds days, home and away!

(Click to enlarge)

I like these, and feel they're pretty slick, but, to be honest, it's too late at night for me to be bothered with writing much more than that!

If you want a figure, contact me on facebook or twitter.

Larsson, Hogaborgs BK

(Click to enlarge)

As you may have seen if you follow this blog, or my Facebook page, I have been doing a bit of a series of Larsson figures throughout his career, for a big Larsson fan.

While Barcelona and Feyenoord repaints would be relatively familiar to many football fans, this one, of Larsson in his time at Hogaborgs BK may prove a little more unfamiliar!

I enjoyed doing this one, even with the notable problem of only being able to find a black and white photo of Larsson in his Hogaborg days!!

In a bit of a difference to my normal repaints, the letters at the top on the front of the shirt, and the shirt number are both hand-painted (rather than using decals) This is mainly due to a technicality that I won't bore you with, but I was pleased with how they came out, anyway!

Here's that black and white photo!

England, World Cup 2002... part 1!

So, as I have mentioned before, I have a returning customer who is attempting to put together the most comprehensive and accurate collection of England tournament squads I have ever seen!

My repaints have already been used to plug the gaps in the released squads of the Italia '90, Euro '96, France '98 and Euro 2000 squads.

Here are the first couple of England World Cup 2002 repaints:

(Click to enlarge)

In number order of course, we have Danny Mills and Trevor Sinclair; two players who, were by no means regulars, but became unlikely regulars in the campaign.

An injury to Gary Neville gave Mills his opportunity, while Sinclair wouldn't have even been in the squad were it not for injuries to both Steven Gerrard, and Danny Murphy. Nonetheless, he made the left midfield spot his own by the end of the tournament. 

This was a favourite England kit of mine when I was younger! Here's a picture to compare the repaints to:

(image from historical kits)

Barry, Everton

(Click to enlarge)

I've recently painted Gareth Barry in Man City and England kit... well. here's the Everton version!

The kit itself is a relatively simple one; the thing that made this one a bit more complicated was the captain's band, which I painted by hand.

I considered using a decal for the captain's band, but thought that the angle it would have to go on at would make it awkward!

I was pleased with it overall, as was the customer. I've also had an inquiry about doing another one, via my facebook page. If you're interested in one, you can contact me there, or via Twitter.

Here's the real kit to compare the repaint to:

Spurs Cholcolate Brown, part 2!

Another trio of Spurs Microstars in the memorable brown kit!

(Click to enlarge)

Actually, I've realised after starting this post that the Routledge figure is actually a Soccerstarz- I noticed because he was one I had to paint the base for; originally it was green!

I also used a decal to add his name!

Here's the kit for comparison: