4 Versions of Gary Speed!

First post of the new year! Hope you're all keeping well, and are ready for 4 very different iterations of Gary Speed!

First up, Funko Gary Speed. I'm not sure if I've written about it at any length before (and I don't really intend to now!) but Funko figures are much easier to use as 'lookalikes' than corinthians! Essentially, if the hair is the right style, its good to go. 

Added bonus is the eyebrows are right!! They can change the character of a figure considerably!

Anyway, the 1991-92 kit was chosen for Speed on a Twitter poll... also because I wanted to do it, and thought it would be easier to sell on afterwards!!

A somewhat unusual one next, but one that I like a lot. In case you can't tell, this is the training top in which Leeds were presented the League trophy in 1991-92. I've only done it a couple of times before, and this was the first time on a microstar.

Love this kit. I still own it, with 11 and Speed on the back, no less. This was the first time I've done it on a Speed figure, having done it on Yeboah a few times before.

 Last but not least, a Vivid Imaginations figure. Not the best 'lookalike' for my  money, but it's what the buyer wanted. I was happy with how the kit ended up looking anyway! I've done Vivid Imaginations repaints of Speed before, but from his floppy, boyband hair era, using a figure of another Welshman...

Nantes x3

My yellow and green paints have been getting quite a lot of air time recently; first with the 12 Norwich figures, and now these:

These were another set of figures that were quite the education for me. I had no idea that these 3 played for Nantes before I did them. They must've been a pretty decent side!

Under the advice of the guy that bought these figures, I reduced the number of sponsors, logos etc on these, on the back particularly, where there were 2, above and below the number!

Other comments about these... Karembeu must have the biggest head of any figure Corinthian ever made!

4 Ian Rushes

Strap yourselves in, here are 4 Ian Rush figures!

As you may have guessed, this grey one was a pain in the backside to paint! I think it was worth the effort, though I don't mind that I've not been asked to reproduce it since.

On the flipside, while it is also tecnically pretty difficult to do, I actually quite enjoy doing pinstripes. This one is part of a growing collection of European Cup final players that one guy is doing; one player from each final.

Another complicated kit! But probably not as difficult as it looks. I didn't try to match the kit exactly- just stick to the righ kind of shapes and patterns. It's all you can do with a kit like this, really.

 And finishing off with the 92-93 away kit. Whenever I'm doing this kit template, I do the main colour of the shirt... and then put off doing the adidas shoulder/ shorts section for ages! I don't know why though, the thought of it is always worse than doing it!#

And, there you go. There was a time when I would have put these into chronological order... but I'm sure the fact that I haven't this time hasn't ruined your evening too much. 

Sheff Wednesday: 3 different kits

Next 4 Sheffield Wednesday figures.

And look: Magilton's back!!

 4 figures, 3 (slightly) different kits.

Yeah... this is a brief one. I've just finished a 10k!

Magilton, Saints

I'm fairly sure I commented (here or on one of my socials) that I was surprised at having done so many Magilton figures in Sheff Weds kits.

Well... here are 3 more, all for the same guy, all in Southampton colours.

Is Magilton actually a 90s football hero without me realising?!

 I think the home kit is my favourite of these 3. The one that's the biggest ballache to paint is definitely the yellow and blue!!

4 Oldham

Here are the last 4 Oldham figures that currently reside in my repaints album:

 I think that Shezza is perhaps the piece de resistance in this guy's Oldham collection, not least because he is so hard to get hold of!

If he was a bit easier to find, I might have ended up making a Sheridan manager remodel too! 

There are at least 2 more manager possibilities: Recently sacked Keith Curle, and that scumbag who's happy to crawl over the memory of murdered fans for cash. Not sure I'd really want to do that one, tbh... although removing the head with a saw might be quite satisfying.

On another note, unless I'm mistaken, the Crossley figure is by far the most recent Oldham player I've repainted. 

McAllister x3, Leeds

Gary McAllister is still one of the best players I've seen at Leeds. Was just class in everything he did, and controlled games from the middle of the park. 

Here are 3 iterations of him from different stages of his Leeds journey.

This is probably the away kit I would think of McAllister in first... probably because I had a poster of him in it on my wall!

I think at the time, a lot of people thought the this version and the green and blue kit were pretty much the same, but you'll notice a couple of main differences- the stripes are much thicker on the yellow and blue, and on the back there was a blue square for the name and number.

It's strange but I hardly associate the kit with Gary Mac at all. I picture it on Gary Speed... and they were both playing in it at the same time! Maybe Speed has more memorable moments in it, as a guess. Although, funnily enough, I'm pretty sure they both scored against Blackburn in it, in successive seasons!

And here he is as a manager... I really wanted him to be the one to get us promoted from League 1, but it just never worked out. We weren't as completely hopeless as a lot of people make out under his management. He got us to the playoff final after taking over midseason from Wise.

He also brought in some great players that summer, and had some patches of good form... he just couldn't sort the defence out, unfortunately. At the time I said I felt we were a good leader at the back from being a promotion team. Grayson arrived, signed Naylor, and we barely lost a game again til the end of the season...

Newcastle XLs

Here are 2 hot off the press! 2 Newcastle XL repaints, of 2 great number 9s.

I was a big fan of this kit at the time. I think, at least in part, that was because it looked like Newcastle might beat Man Utd to the title!

 I was a little bit surprised that this kit was chosen for this repaint; my main memory is of Shearer recovering from a bad injury in this kit. Admittedly, this might be a mis-remember!

I also never liked the shield on the back; a friend of mine at school had it, and I always thought it looked stupid if you didn't get a number put on it.

In terms of the figure, this had some minor elements of remodelling; the original was in an England kit, with a collar, so I had to sand that down a bit, and then fill in the remaining 'v-neck' part. Ended up looking pretty good, I think.

Next 4 Everton

I do find it pleasing when the next 4 figures for a club in my repaints album all have different kits!

This is the third time I've done this Ferguson Cup Final celebration figure, and I'd say it's the best! It's mainly the same as the others, but with a few more years of practice behind me, I was happy to have a go at the thin white and blue stripes on the collar. On the others, I think I just did it lighter blue, as that's how it looks from a distance.

First Everton Soccerstarz, if I remember rightly. As ever with the Hummel kits, you can't see the chevrons on the sleeves very well!

Franny Jeffers. Nice clean lines round the collar, if I say so myself.

 And finally McCall... the details around the top of the socks are my favourite bit!! That's the kind of detail I look at them in!

4 More Norwich

Norwich finally got a Premier League win under their belt today, so seems as good a time as any to post a few more Norwich pictures:

Gotta say, I think this Fox repaint is my favourite!

Never knew Grant played for Norwich until I made this.

Or Hartson, tbf. These ones certainly proved educational, as it was the same with Bruce and Andy Townsend.

 And finally, Danny Mills, who I think had a little more hair when he was a youngster at Carrow Road...

4 Serie A repaints

I thought I'd mix it up slightly today, with 2 Inter and 2 Juve repaints, though if I'm honest, I probably wouldn't have thought of that if they weren't next to each other in my repaints album...

I remember a friend of mine saying this would make a great England kit... not sure, myself! This was part of an order of several Colombian players that I did a while back. All in club kits though, interestingly.

I remember never really getting this kit when it was out at the time. I think it might have been Inter's kit for European games only, before that was a common thing. Tho I've not bothered to research that, so it might be wrong!

Bit of a pain to paint, this one; as you may know, I've commented before that hoops are disproportionately harder than stripes. The yellow numbers onto a darker colour also add an element of pain in the arsery.

Without realising, another part of the order of lots of Colombian players! Maybe Colombian players were less common figures, or maybe its more of a cultural thing to celebrate their players doing well abroad, cos personally, I'd never go for a bunch of England players in their various club kits... unless it was Leeds of course!

 Finally, Ravanelli. What a beauty of a kit!!

Spurs 'D' section!

When it comes to Spurs, it looks pretty likely that I'll be sticking to alphabetical order!!

I painted most of them so long ago now, that I don't have any interesting tales about them, and I can't be bothered to go through and categorise them in any way!

So, with that in mind, here are the players beginning with D!!

 And, that's the post!

Derby

 Just heard the latest news about Derby, and, yes, it's petty, but after spygate, I can't help but have a little smirk. You'd think they'd have had a bit more nous in banging on about getting another team punished for not breaking any rules, when they're breaking much bigger ones (ie: ones that actually exist) themselves.

So... here are some Derby figures I painted... Any Derby fans want to buy them from me?!

(Not this Wanchope one- it's already sold)

There aren't that many Derby repaints you can do, in relation to some other clubs. 

These were just ones I took out of my box of spares and thought, I'd do. Sometimes I like doing figures I've not seen done before; gives me a bit of motivation, and gets my painting mojo back, when its become a bit of a chore. And it did work, tbf.

So, yeah... Derby fans, strike that first paragraph from your memories, and buy these from me, yes?!

4 Wallaces, Southampton

 Never thought I'd get to the stage of having 4 Rod Wallace Southampton figures to put on one post! 

Like, he was a good pro, but I just didn't foresee this demand for him, especially when he's not the easiest figure to get hold of!

Anyway, here they are: 

This kit *heart eyes emoji*

Yes, it's not the easiest to paint, but just look at it!! Beauty. 

The next one is a bit easier to make up for the difficulty level of the first!

Number 11 for the second 2 figures. I guess that might have something to do with the emergence of a certain le Tissier, but that's speculation, based on no research at all!

And there you have it: 2 homes, 2 aways, 4 Wallaces!
...
And knowiung the collector they belong to, don't bet against there being more!!

Dowie x3, Southampton

Everyone has different parameters for their collections. Me? I'm quite happy to get each player Corinthian produced just and put him into just one Leeds kit; maybe of a significant game or moment.

Some people seem to want players in every kit they wore... even when that figure is as hard to come by as Iain Dowie!

(Purists, look away now!)

 Either the collector that these were for has had these hoarded away for years, or he is pumping money into his collection!! He certainly isn't afraid of getting rare figures done, anyway!

I've become quite accustomed to his request for these patterned Southampton away kits- the hardest part is remembering which of my 3 shades of light blue paint I used for the detailing!