The Next 3 Sheffield United players...

It's been a bleak old season for Sheffield United fans so far. Maybe a couple of corinthian repaints can raise their spirits!

All of these were done quite a while ago now

First up: Vinnie Jones. I think this one looks great. Certainly took a lot of work... and I have to say it, but I think I could do it even better now!

Those thin black stripes make it!

I love how the name and number look so clear on this one. Funny as, in real life, I'm not a big fan of shirts with striped fronts and plain backs... tho it does make the repaint easier!

Keith Gillespie scored a great goal in this kit, as I recall!

Last but not least: Lee Hendrie. Certainly a better likeness of him than the original figure, for my money! Not much else to say about this one really- pretty much a standard Sheffield United kit, and I was very well practiced in them at the time I painted this.

QPR Goalies

As it turns out, I'm still sulking a bit about Leeds' result on Friday night. 

It's like: I get that things could be much worse, but it's the first time this season I've felt a bit concerned...

I've felt concerned for Leeds under Bielsa before of course, most recently that concern was ended by a 5 match winning run without conceding a goal, so... well, a repeat of that would be nice, anyway!

Erm... here are some QPR goalies.

Celtic 'Bumblebee' away kit

To be honest... I'm still sulking after a Leeds defeat, so here you go, just have a look at a load of Celtic players!

Savicevic, Red Star

Savicevic, Red Star, why not?!

 

Jess, Aberdeen

Sunday night a good time to add my first ever Aberdeen repaint to this blog?

 Seems like a good time to add an Aberdeen player to the blog.

EDIT: OMG! It's not my first Aberdeen player! Tho it is my first Aberdeen outfield player. Apparently I did a Jim Leighton Aberdeen repaint many moons ago. 2014 as it happens. 

I'm doing the same kit (Everton version) very soon, so it will be a good chance to measure how far I've come...

4 Sheffield Wednesday Players

I haven't posted any Wednesday players for a while, so here are the next few!

After spending about half an hour replying to all my inbox messages and requests (and that's just Twitter... Instagram next...) I couldn' be bothered choosing by a particular category; these are just the first 4 alphabetically! 

Enjoy!

3 Lennons

Assuming Liverpool don't score 8 more goals in their game against Leicester, Spurs will be ending the weekend top of the pile. So, I thought I'd post some pictures of a player that has nothing to do with Spurs currently being top!!

As is often the case with figures that I painted quite a while ago, I don't really have much to tell you about them. But, there's 3 of them, eh?!

QPR Strikers

Here are a few from a big-ish QPR order I had in the summer.

Literally no idea that Mark Stein played for QPR til I made this.

The second time I've done Sir Les in QPR kit. This is infinitely better than the first one, which was one of my first attempts at hoops! 

For some reason, I always like ones where the numbering and lettering are different colours- just something different, and an extra little challenge, I guess!

This is also the only one of this mini set on today's post that has hoops on the arms too!

I have very little to say about Chris Kiwomya... erm... he scored against Leeds once when he pleyed for Ipswich?!

On this figure, the hoops were much thinner, but I was pleased with how they look- still neat and straight, even though they were a bit harder!

And last but not least, QPR legend: Eric Cantona?!?

 The guy who made the order just asked: I know he never played for us, but would you be ok to do Cantona in QPR kit?! 

So I did!!

3 Real Madrid Champions League winners

One of my regulars has an ongoing project of getting a key player from the winners of every Champions League final done, in the right kit.

Here are a few Real Madrid ones that now nestle happily in his collection!

 Being as I don't know the years of the shirts, and haven't got the inclination to check, I've put them up in number order!

Some of you may be thinking: "Hang on; these players were never made by Corinthian!", and you'd be right! These are all remodels, using Kodoto figure heads, tho I didn't do the remodelling myself- they arrived with me like this!

In a time when I'm really struggling to keep up with all my requests, a few plain kits with just a bit of trim round the collar, cuffs etc was just what the doctor ordered!

These do have some extra details, tho you can't see them all on the pics. All have the appropriate Champions League sleeve patches, and you can see the club world champions shield on a couple of them! I think they have a different logo on the opposite sleeve too, tho I can't remember what it is!

Leeds management duos

Scrolling through my repaints folder, deciding on who to pick, and I eventually settled on a pair of management teams from days gone by- all remodels, with a bit of repainting thrown in!

The duo that took us down to the third tier for the first time in our history...

It's hard to completely know wat to make of them- they got relegated with a squad that, while flawed surely had enough ability to survive in the Championship (Healy, Blake, Cresswell, Derry and Eddie Lewis among them) then made a fantastic start in League one with a thrown together squad... then both jumped ship at pretty much the first opportunity; Poyet to be a glorified translator at Spurs, and Wise to sit in some offices at Sports Direct. You can understand why a lot of Leeds fans don't look back on them too fondly...

Anyway, the figures both involved 'head swaps'. I had remodeled tracksuits onto them both in the past (you'll find those figures somewhere on the 'coaches and managers' tag) but these are much better. Wise took to wearing a jacket in his second season, though I couldn't help but feel the figure was too tall!! Poyet holding the clipboard and whistle is pretty fitting given that he was generally considered to be the brains behind the operation!

And now for the 2 that replaced them: 

A funny old pairing these 2. I think McAllister is one of those that fits the cliche of great player who couldn't understand that the players couldn't do what he could do- even when he arrived in his... 50s(!)

His team looked great going forward at times, but were undoubtedly soft at the back, and he just couldn't solve that problem, as illustrated by his last throw of the dice: Mansour Assoumani! 

I remember at the time saying I felt we were one good leader at the back away from a promotion team... Grayson came in and signed Naylor and we won 10 home games in a row, before missing out on the playoffs. With regards to Staunton... I'm not really sure what he did!

Anyway, as with the other 2, these were head swaps, then name changes on the base. For Macca, I did the shirt and tie similar to what he often wore in his time as boss. As for Staunton, that was just the tracksuit most google image searches returned with him in!! I still associate that top with Grayson more.

Anyway, to conclude… I'd probably keep Bielsa over both of these pairings!

El Diego, x2

International break: International repaints.

2 Maradonas done, in what's become a bit of a growing trend, when someone has asked me to do the same kit they came in, but better... and, if I'm allowed to say, I think I succeeded.

So, if you wondered about the differences, I've added the captain's band, the number font is more accurate, and also on the shorts. The badge is sharper, the kit supplier is there too, and I even added a wristband and puma boots!

Plus... the stripes are better!

 

Lots of the same changes on this one (number on shorts, captain's armband, boots, wrist band) and also changed the number on the shirt- I never knew it was silver- it always looked white to me- but the buyer was insistent!

I was also really pleased with the 2 tone blue stripes. You might not have even noticed if I hadn't said. Go on, have a closer look!

2 Portsmouth repaints

When I searched the blog to check I hadn't already posted these pics, I saw that my last Pompey blog post was in 2016!

Good things come to those who wait, Portsmouth fans...

This was something of a complex one! You'll have probably noticed in the past that, generally, I don't do the patterns in the fabric- it can be complicated, and lead to inconsistencies when I paint the kits again in future (ie if I forget that I did the pattern last time!)

The buyer of this was very keen tho, so I did it on this occasion. It also meant that I decided to handpaint the numbers (which is also rare for me) so I wouldn't have to redo the pattern where the decal would cover it!

 A much more straightforward one than Anderton here! If anything, I probably prefer it tho!

People often tell me they think complicated ones are my best repaints... but I like things perfect! While I often manage a very good job on the complex kits, ones like this are much closer to the perfection I'm after! I've also talked before about how the clean lines around collars, cuffs etc really elevate a simpler repaint to a great one, and I think that's the case here too

*Thumbs up emoji*

Sheringham XLs

 Today seems as good a day as any for some Sheringham XL figures; 3 in fact!

I'm pretty sure I've painted more XLs of Sheringham than anyone else! Les Ferdinand second!

Tadaaaaa!

Can't be bothered writing mush today, so thought I'd treat you to 4 pics!!

Larsson, Helsingborgs... part 2.

Time for a quick end of the day blog post before I go to bed.

I scrolled through my repaints folder, looking for some likely figures, and settled on these 2:

Larsson, in his Helsingborgs days! 

A quick check through the archive confirmed that I have done just one Helsingborg figure before these; Larsson in a different kit! (In case you were wondering, that's why this post is entitled: Part 2, though a long time has passed between the original and the sequels!)

These were for a Celtic fan, who has Larsson's whole career as something of a project!

They were both nice, simple figures, to be fair; especially that second one!

My First Barnsley figures:

For the first time: Barnsley figures!

When a Barnsley fan got in contact with me, he was after a Neil Redfearn figure if I remember correctly. I explained that, while it would be possible, using a 'lookalike', I could also look into the figures made who did play for Barnsley.

What followed was a relatively short list, and from it, he chose these 2:

Comments on this one: I love the socks! I also feel the need to comment that I know he wouldn't have had his name on the shirt in this season, but that was the buyer's preference.

 Pretty sizeable collar on this one!! I'm not sure if the white on red exaggerates it or something, but it looks massive!! I also think the name and number look really sharp and clear.

My final comment... it pleases me that these are in both time and number order!!

van Dijk, Celtic home kits

van Dijk... or Virgil as he seemed to want to be called at Celtic! Here are a couple of Kodoto figures, with the promise of more to come (away kits!)

I've had plenty of practice of doing hoops lately, with big QPR and Celtic orders, and it's a good job too, with these 2! Look at the thin white hoops within the green hoops on the top one, and the little ones next to the thick hoops on the bottom one!

Thes figures also have captain's armbands added. Recommendation when doing these: check is the buyer has any intention of moving the arms, and if not- keep them very still!!

Barca x2

A couple of Barcelona figures today, why not?

 I did 2 similar figures a couple of years ago, but in the kit from the season before... or maybe after! I remember them being quite tricky as their wasn't a central stripe, which, I think I've mentioned before is the one that is key for me in getting it even!

With that in mind, I'd say these 2 were a bit easier for me... and probably better too.

Click the Barcelona tag if you want to compare them. you won't have to scroll back far. Probably!

Stuart McCall, Bradford: Great City!

Well, Bradford are playing tonight, so how about a Bradford repaint?!

 I hadn't done any Bradford players until a couple of months ago, and now I've done 5 or 6, including Stuart McCall in 2 different kits!

I had to do a bit of searching to find a suitable picture of the 'Great City' logo, to make the decal, but I found one in the end!

I was happy with how this turned out. It was an interesting one to research, as, unless I'm mistaken, the shirts all had their stripes in different places (eg some had a central amber stripe on the back, and some had a maroon one) and I know similar happened with Sheffield United shirts.

Anyway, I think (hope!) that I did actually find a pic of McCall to look at for this repaint. It was well received

Cantona, France

 I gave you an international figure yesterday, and being as it's still International week, here's another:

I quite like this kit; the main problem with putting it on this Cantona is how asymmetric the figure itself is!! Seriously!!

Look at the collar! Look at the size and length of the sleeves! This is an issue with a couple of the other poses too, and sometimes you just have to work around them. 

Hopefully, this is one of those things that only people who spend hours staring very closely at the figure whilst painting it notice!

Schmeichel, Denmark '92

International break: International repaint, and one of my finest in recent times, I'd say.

I checked with the guy who ordered this to see if he knew there was a version of this kit made by corinthian... apparently it's really expensive!

In case you wondered about my method, firstly, I painted the shirt completely white. Then, I mixed versions of all the pastel colours (in a milk bottle lid!) and then did them in sort of stripes, blending and mixing on the shirt as I went along.

The next step was doing the black at the top of the shirt and on the cuffs, and elbow/ lower arm padding, and of course those criss crossing lines!

The final step was details like the yellow round the collar and the number 1 on the front and back. Normally I would use a decal for those, but on this one, I felt it would make more work in redoing the colours and black stripes, so I did them by hand this time. Fortunately, there were no names on shirts in 1992!

Wallace home and away, Southampton

You know my Friday blogging habits by now:

Here are some Rod Wallace figures.

 I like them.

I'm tired.

Leeds United Funkos

 I'm going to take this post as the chance to have a proud fan moment: what a performance against City yesterday!

More possession, more passes, better chances (sorry to be that guy, but just check the xG!) After a tough first 20 mins, we could have conceivably won that.

7 points from the first 12 available including playing last year's top 2. Cannot complain.

Anyway... here are some funko pops!

Ilan, you wonderful spiderboy!

Oh captain, my captain

Tyler you handsome bastard, who shows flashes of brilliance but just needs a bit more consistency...

Mateusz, you delightful shithouse who also just happens to be really good at football.

 Premiers League Leeds United. I've been waiting for pretty much half my life to get back there!

More Funkos in the new kits are pretty much inevitable!

If you've made it to the end of this post, well done!