Vandalised Mickey Mouse back on show with rainbow
MICKEY MOUSE has been repaired and is back on display outside a house in Courtil St Jacques.
The fibreglass figure, which was made by Ned Oliveira, was vandalised at the start of March and left in pieces.
Mr Oliveira’s wife, Abby, said they were pleased Mickey has been put back together.
‘He is all fixed up and looking great,’ she said. ‘We don’t know how long he will keep looking that good, because we did not have the right paint.’
The family have been shielding since mid-March, meaning they were not able to get materials. However, Mr Oliveira was able to get a respirator, which meant he could work with the fibreglass. They were able to afford it thanks to some kind donations.
‘We had a little boy called Edward who came around with £5 of his pocket money, and another man donated £25, which was really nice,’ Mrs Oliveira said.
‘We did not expect the publicity when he was vandalised. In a way it was nice, so people were aware of Ned’s talents. Everyone is happy Mickey is back on the roof.’
It has taken two weeks of work for Mr Oliveira to finish the repairs. He admitted he was a perfectionist, which made working without the correct equipment very hard.
They had no filler, none of the correct paint and no new sandpaper. The latter meant that Mr Oliveira had to spend a long time with old pieces of sandpaper to get the statue smooth.
He tried using acrylic to paint the figure, but found it bubbled in the heat. He added PVA glue, which seemed to help.
‘He has a few marks,’ Mr Oliveira said. ‘We had no filler, so we had to make do with fibreglass resin mixed with fine sand. He has a few battle scars from where we put him back together again.’
To mark the lockdown, Mr Oliveira has added a rainbow to the figure, which he painted using glow in the dark paint, so it should show up at night.
The statue has been sprayed with waterproofer to protect it from the weather and it is mostly in the shade. The family hope it will last.
Because the family are shielding, people should not go to the house. However, they welcomed people passing the property on their daily exercise – the statue can be seen clearly from the road.
