Flo 1998-00 (a)

Tore Andre Flo was one of my favourite players growing up. He was very skilful for someone of his height and scored some memorable goals during his three years at the club.

Highlights include the hat-trick at Three Point Lane during the 6-1 demolition, goals against Barcelona in the Champions League quarter final and the brace against Blackburn in the kit painted on this figure.

The game against Blackburn at the beginning of the 1998-99 season was a classic Premier League encounter full of goals and incidents. Perhaps the most memorable aspect was Roy Hodgson, Blackburn manager at the time, losing his cool somewhat! You can watch highlights here.

Flo lived up to his reputation as a supersup as he came off the bench to score twice and fire Chelsea to a 4-3 win.

There are two good biographies of Flo's time at the club by Chelsea and Sporting Heroes.

Lampard 12-13 (3rd)

Corinthians have done a number of Lampard figures over the years, using three main sculpts. By far the most common is the first sculpt which is the one I have used for this figure.

It depicts Lampard in the 2012-13 season third kit.

The 2012-13 season started brilliantly for Chelsea under Di Matteo but quickly turned sour with some poor performances, the exit from the Champions League group stage, and the appointment of Benitez.

The season had been very frustrating due to Benitez's style of football and inconsistent results. 

Some examples of good results include winning at Everton and Man U; beating Arsenal at home; coming back from two down in the FA Cup to beat Man U in a replay; and winning the Europa League.

And some bad include embarrassing defeats in the Club World Cup, Super Cup and League Cup; dropping points having been 2 up against Southampton and Reading; and losing at home to a terrible QPR side.

All in all it looked like being a very disappointing year aside from the consolation prize of the Europa League.

One of the positives however, was the potential for Lampard to break the club goalscoring record. There had been rumours throughout the year that this would be his last season at the club as he wouldn't be offered a new deal when his contract expired in June. As the games progressed and Lampard got closer to Bobby Tambling's record of 202 it was always touch and go.

In true Lampard style, though, he finally equalled and then broke the record at Villa Park in the penultimate league game leading to some delirious scenes in the away end! The goals, which can be seen here, were typical Lampard, a left foot strike from just inside the box and a late run to finish a good team move. The late win had secured qualification for the Champions League the following year.

Ed de Goey 1997-98

The first Chelsea figure I repainted was that of Ed de Goey. Corinthians produced de Goey figures in two Chelsea kits, the green kit of 98-99 and the silver kit of 99-00.

I'm not a huge fan of either of the kits, and much prefer those of the previous two years. The orangey-red kit worn during 96-97 and as an away goalkeeper kit during de Goey's first season (97-98) was perhaps a little difficult for a first repaint and so I went for the yellow kit, which he wore for the majority of his first season.

Chelsea have done a short bio of how Ed's time at the club went. A more detailed one can be found here.

Most Chelsea supporters, including me, look back on Ed's career favourably. He was a (usually!) dependable keeper during one of the most successful periods in the club's history.

How?

Before I start showcasing some of the figures I've repainted I'll briefly explain how easy it is.

First of all you need some paint (obviously!) - I use the Humbrol enamel paints.

You'll want to clean the figure so that all the dust accumulated over the years is removed.

If the kit colour is going to be a light colour then it a good idea to use a primer. I don't use specialist primers, just a coat of ordinary white enamel.

After that it is a case of painting the figure in the colours you want. The more detailed parts are much easier if you use a fine brush.

Once that is done you just need to add the decals (you can paint sponsors etc. on but I think the finish of the figure is much better with decals). This involves a lot of time finding the images on the internet and fitting them to size for printing.

You'll want to print on clear decal paper for light coloured backgrounds and where the image being transferred contains no white parts. However, all other images will require the white decal paper.

Actually applying the decals is probably the toughest part of in my opinion. If you used white decal paper you'll have to paint round the edges of the image to cover up the white parts, but when you've done that you have a completed repaint!

Here is an example. The David Platt figure from the England Euro 96 collection has been converted to the Aston Villa home kit for the 1989-90 season.

Repaints

Like me many of you will have collection the 7cm big head Corinthian football figures throughout the late 90s and 00s.

I was clearing out my room a few months back and came across my fairly vast collection of Chelsea and England figures.

My interest was rekindled and searching online I came across someone who had done an excellent job of repainting figures.

I had a number of spare figures and was inspired to give it a go myself.

Here is some of the work I've done so far and I hope to add plenty more in the future.