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*