Arsenal Figures

 This past month I've been working on some Arsenal figures that someone requested.

Sol Campbell in the 2005-06 away kit. A simple enough repaint, but easy to ruin with the finer details! Campbell memorably wore this kit in the Champions League final against Barcelona where he scored the opening goal, before things started to go wrong!

Dennis Bergkamp in the 1996-97 away kit. Another simple one!

Tony Adams in the 1988-91 away kit. Perhaps the most famous of Arsenal away kits due to it being worn during the League decider away at Anfield in 1989. I'm really happy with how the Adidas stripes and collar have come out here with the red trim either side of the yellow. The JVC sponsor is slightly too large though, as are Adam's almost Disney like puppy dog eyes!

Another Adams, this time in the 1995-96 away kit. I'm really pleased with this one - particularly the crispness of the zigzags. It was also quite difficult finding the correct shade of the lighter blue but it's come out really nicely.

Next up is Thierry Henry in the 2011-12 home kit he wore upon his brief return to Arsenal after the January window of that season. He wore this one when he scored the winner at home to Leeds in the FA Cup. The most simple of repaints this time, although I did add the beard and boots.

From the simplest to by far the toughest. This is Ian Wright in the famous bruised banana away kit of 1991-93. I doubted whether I'd be able to pull this one off, and whilst it's not perfect, I'm really happy with the end product.

Here's David Seaman in the 1992-93 goalkeeper kit he wore for the FA Cup Final against Sheffield Wednesday. I believe the normal keeper's kit that season was actually a blue variant of this kit, but Seaman could also be seen in red and grey that year! If you are interested in kit history the best place is probably Museum of Jerseys which provide excellent articles.

The final kit is one you could say I've cheated on slightly as I've replicated the repeated star pattern on the shirt using decals rather than my painting ability! This is the kit Seaman wore during the 1994-95 season, particularly famous for his penalty heroics in the semi final of the Cup Winner's Cup, followed by his blunder in the final! I'm pleased with how this has turned out although when looking closely you can see the "seams" of the decals which were very awkward to put on. This is probably only going to get worse over time as they shrink and expose the white edges further.

Multiple Repaints!

 Well it's been almost a month since I've last posted, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy painting! In fact it is only because of the extremely hot weather that I'm not painting now.

These are some of the non-Chelsea repaints I've been up to during the past few weeks:

Gazza in the England Euro 96 kit

Bruce Grobbelaar in the Liverpool 1985-86 goalkeeper kit

Zinedine Zidane in the France Euro 2000 away kit

Peter Beardsley in the Liverpool 1987-88 home kit

Mark Hughes in the Man Utd 1992-94 home kit

Andy Cole in the Man Utd 1994-96 third kit

Wayne Rooney in the Man Utd 2016-17 away kit

Flo 99-01 (h)

This is another repaint to fill in the gaps of Corinthians back catalogue. For some reason Tore Andre Flo was omitted from the team pack of 1999 and so here he is. Unfortunately the camera work is not the best!

This is of course a kit I've repainted before with the main issue encountered being the collar on the sculpt. The fine blue line was quite tricky to get right on an uneven surface.

Flo had his best year during the 1999-2000 scoring 19 goals including some important ones during the memorable Champions League campaign with braces away at "Hell" in a 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray; at home to Feyenoord; and during the special 3-1 victory over Barcelona in the quarter final.

Anelka 08-09 (a)

This was a good season for Nicolas Anelka. It was the year after he had joined and having missed the decisive penalty he was brought on for in the Champions League Final that season it was fair to say he wasn't a fan favourite in August of 2008.

However, the supporters quickly realised his worth as he scored several goals and ended up winning the golden boot. It wasn't the greatest season in Chelsea's recent history as we finished outside the top two for the first time in six seasons, but did end up with an enjoyable FA Cup victory over Everton.

The season had started so well under Big Phil Scolari as we won a number of early games in style and topped the table throughout the autumn. At the half way point we were only a point of top of the league Liverpool, but a disappointing start to 2009 saw Scolari sacked and Guus Hiddink brought in as a temporary replacement. Form picked up straight away with Anelka coolly slotting in the only goal away at a strong Aston Villa, where we wore this black away kit.

As for the kit, it was simple enough to paint and looks almost as good as the excellent Corinthian model of Anelka.

Duff 03-04 (a)

This is another repaint I actually finished a couple of years back (I did this and the Veron one in the same kit at the same time), but am finally getting round to uploading now!

I think this has to be one of my favourite Chelsea kits of all time. Stylistically I really love the stripes down the middle fading into the sponsor, but I think more than that, when you see an old kit again it evokes the memories and feelings of that time as a supporter. 2003 was when Roman Abramovich first took over as owner of Chelsea and the excitement around the club at that time was huge. I remember going to the old Harlington training ground to watch training and collecting the autographs of players like Duff, Veron and Crespo each week was really enjoyable. Unfortunately, not long into the season the training ground was closed to supporters which was probably due to the rumours of the likes of Beckham, Rivaldo, Nesta, Henry etc... joining.

Kharine 92-93 (GK)

Back to one from my own collection now with Dmitri Kharine who was Chelsea's goalkeeper during the early to mid nineties. Kharine is one of the few goalkeepers from that era, and indeed any era, that used to wear trousers rather than the club shorts! This makes things quite simple for a repainter such as myself, but needless to say the goalkeeper shirts of that era more than make up for it in the difficulty department!

This is in fact one of the easier kits to repaint from Kharine's repertoire and also happens to be the one he wore on his debut away at QPR. This pinstripe kit was worn in both yellow and purple that season, and I hope to replicate the purple version some time in the future.

You may be able to tell that I attempted to remodel the legs such that the shorts continue down to the socks to look like trousers. I'm not 100% happy with the end product, but hopefully I can improve next time.

Teddy Sheringham Manchester United 00-01 (a)

This one was initially a bit frustrating. I had originally lined up this Sheringham figure to be repainted into the gold kit I painted Gary Neville in last week but quickly realised that Sheringham had been sold during the summer the kit was first released. At least I realised before I'd started painting it!

Next, I planned to paint it in the home kit that Manchester United wore for Sheringham's last season at the club only to then find that Corinthians actually released a Sheringham figure in that kit! So in the end I settled on this away kit from the 2000-01 season.

This is a simple repaint with the only painting difficulty occurring when trying to replicate the stripes over the shoulders. I think I overcame this well enough and am really pleased with how the repaint ended up.

This one is also available on my Ebay.