Eto'o 13-14 (a)

The second Eto'o figure I've done. This time in the away kit of his only season at the club. There is no particular sentiment for painting Eto'o in this kit - he failed to score away from home all season!

Carvalho 09-10 (a)

This was the cursed away kit of 2009-10! Chelsea lost six games in domestic competitions that season, and four of them came wearing this kit! In fact, the kit was only worn on five occasions - away league defeats at Wigan, Aston Villa and Man City; a defeat on penalties in the League Cup at Blackburn; and a 1-1 draw in the league at Blackburn which lost us control of the title race!

In the end it didn't matter too much as we won the league with a record number of goals scored. It was lucky we generally favoured the white third kit towards the end of the season though!

Michael Dawson Hull City 15-16

This is one of three repaints I've done for a Hull City fan recently. It shows Michael Dawson in their home kit from last season.

Hull were promoted via the playoffs, with Mo Diame scoring the winning goal.

The kit was interesting enough to do - this is the first time I've painted pinstripes on a shirt. I wasn't sure if they were going to be too thick, but I'm relatively pleased with the end result.

Venables 64-65 (h)

This was a somewhat ambitious project I undertook at the end of last year, before my winter break. I have taken the head and base of a Terry Venables manager figure, and attached it to a body in a playing pose (I believe it was Ian Durrant - sorry Rangers fans!). I was inspired to attempt this after seeing something similar on a Chelsea repaint Facebook page (shown below).

Unfortunately, on their repaint they have used the wrong Chelsea badge for the time!

As you can see, my attempt has not gone perfectly! The first thing you notice is that the figure has quite a pronounced lean! Combined with the huge smile on the face of Venables, it looks like he might have spent the previous night in the pub! Although, perhaps it is fitting as Venables left Chelsea after an argument with manager Tommy Docherty, over being sent home for breaking a curfew.

The second thing that is noticeable is the attachment of the head and base. The removal of these from the original Venables manager figure (using a saw) was not easy and left uneven surfaces on both the figures. This meant that when placing the head onto the body, there wasn't a simple flat surface to glue it on.

To combat this I initially used a wall filler to cover the cracks and jagged edges, and then superglue to ensure the head and base remained in place. It is this filler that can be seen on the neck and base of the figure. Whilst not perfect, I am relatively satisfied at the final result, even if it does look like Venables has a wrinkly and/or diseased neck!

Venables played for Chelsea way before my time, but he is still remembered fondly by supporters (even if he did leave us for Spurs!). He was one of the members of our great youth team in the early 60s, and quickly became captain of a first team which was on the up, competing domestically and on the European stage. Victory in the 1964-65 League Cup (our second major honour) was backed up with a great run in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup the following season. Chelsea really was the place to be in the 60s, both in football and culturally too. 

Chelsea have done a good short bio of Terry's time at the club here.

Tim Sherwood Portsmouth 02-03

This is a repaint I did from one of the figures of the England Euro 96 collection. I was looking at Sherwood's clubs and was surprised to find Portsmouth on the list!

Sherwood played for Pompey towards the back end of the 2002-03 season, when they won the First Divison (now the Championship), and then the beginning of the following season, in the Premiership.

I'm really happy with the final outcome of this repaint. It was recently sold on Ebay, so someone else must've liked it too!

Veron 03-04 (a)

Back to some Chelsea repaints now!

Juan Sebastian Veron joined Chelsea in the summer of 2003 as one of the first signings of the Abramovich era. Having been disappointing for Manchester United, who had signed him for an English transfer record fee at the time, it was a risky move.

Despite his poor performances in England, both Alex Ferguson and Claudio Ranieri rated him very highly. It looked like they were to be proved right when Veron netted the winner at Anfield on the first game of the 2003-04 Premier League season.

However, injuries soon took their toll and Veron missed out on most of the season. When Jose Mourinho arrived the following season Veron was loaned out to Inter Milan. It was the beginning of some the club's bizarre transfer policies of loaning out experienced players for years on end before eventually selling them for next to nothing. I'm particularly thinking of Hernan Crespo, Yossi Benayoun, Marko Marin and Victor Moses. The latter two haven't been sold yet, and could still play a part for Chelsea, but it wouldn't be at all surprising if both we moved on for small fees.

Veron stayed for two years at Inter Milan, before spending a further year on loan at native club Estudiantes. He eventually departed to them on a free transfer at the beginning of the 2007-2008 season. In all he spent four full seasons as a Chelsea player, of which three were spent on loan! He only made 14 appearances, which equates to just over £1m a game (£15m fee), plus several years of wages for time he spent at other clubs.

Unsurprisingly, you will often find Veron on lists of the most expensive flops of all time! As if that's not embarrassing enough, he usually appears on the list more than once!

Wayne Rooney England Away Euro 2016

As promised, here is my third Rooney figure, this time in the England away kit for Euro 2016.

England are yet to wear this kit in the competition, and I'm not sure they will in the final group match against Slovakia. Hopefully, they wear it later in the competition - a winning Rooney goal against Germany would be nice! Unlikely though!

Wayne Rooney England Euro 2016

With the Euros starting soon (tonight!) I've painted two Wayne Rooney figures in the new England kit.

I'm really pleased with how the repaints have turned out, even if I'm not a huge fan of the kit itself!

Both of these are available on Ebay to purchase, just follow the link! 

I decided to put them both on Ebay as early as soon as the tournament starts to ensure a demand for them! It was too great a risk to leave it later with the likelihood of England exiting the tournament within a few days of it beginning (again!). That being said, I hope to produce one of Rooney in the away kit over the next couple of weeks.

Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid 15-16

This was a very simple repaint thanks to the very simple kit design of Real Madrid! The trickiest part was fitting all the transfers on! I decided to do the kit worn by Real in the Champions League this season.

Ronaldo played a major role in Real winning La Undecima, scoring twice against Roma; a hattrick to turn the tie around against Wolfsburg and then the winning penalty in the final against Atletico.

Gullit 94-96 (a)

This is another repaint in the famous tangerine and graphite kit! The other one I've done in this kit is of Gavin Peacock.

This one was a bit more awkward to do as the original painting from Corinthians (in the 95-96 home kit) was very sloppy! This meant I had to repaint a lot of the arms and legs where the blue from the original figure was sticking out.

The stance in which Gullit is in is also quite difficult to paint around. There are a lot of body parts attached to one another, and it is hard to tell the difference between shirt, shorts, socks and skin! Nevertheless, I think the repaint has come out really nicely.

My only gripe is the shade of Gullit's skin, which is far darker than in real life. This is the opposite problem to the George Weah figure I painted last year!

David Batty Leeds 91-92

Another one of my earlier repaints, which I sold recently. This one is of David Batty in the Leeds United kit of 1991-1992 which is when they won Division 1 - the final season before the inception of the Premier League.

Despite the rivalry between Chelsea and Leeds, I, and a number of Chelsea supporters, would love to see them back in the Premier League.