It was this big!

11:20am Saturday 19th April 2008

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By Ash Bolton »

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AT 12in high and 5ft long she's a lot smaller than her big sister.

But that has not stopped this miniature version of £300m cruise ship Ventura - which left Southampton on its maiden voyage last night - from taking to the water herself.

Taking 11 months to build, the ship was a labour of love for Hampshire man Don Scott who used objects such as toothpaste caps, balsa wood and timber to build the ship.

The £500 model is the latest of eight boats built by the former musician from Pennington who took up shipbuilding when he retired. The great-grandad has now added Ventura to his impressive collection that also includes Queen Mary 2, Arcadia and Aurora.

Don used photographs of the 3,600-passenger ship to construct the radio-controlled model that he sails on a lake in the New Forest.

Don, 81, of Bays Road, said: "Ventura's been the biggest headache of the lot. It's unusual in many ways and very complicated to build but we got there in the end. I'm pleased with her. They completed the real one just ahead of mine.

"I built it mainly from photographs and dimensions of the ship like I have done that with all my models. They are all to the scale of one to 200 so that when they are out together they look realistic."

Don's passion for boat building began after his partner Joan Buckingham suggested he turned his hand to making model boats seven years ago.

In 2005 Don and Joan were invited on to Queen Mary 2 when the ship came to Southampton. Commodore Ron Warwick placed it in one of the ship's swimming pools and sailed it himself.