A leading model house maker who has worked on a project at a castle in Oxfordshire said he is flooded with commissions from stately homes.
Ben Taggart has worked at Wallingford Castle as well as The Broughton Hall Estate in the Yorkshire Dales, Nonsuch Palace in Surrey, and Kinnaird Castle in Angus.
The 56-year-old said he is flooded with a stream of commissions from stately homes - many on the condition of secrecy.
Such is the demand for his skills that he is busy touring the country on commission from private homeowners, museums and stately homes.
He said: "I am luckily unique, which keeps me employed. People know I am the person who does this sort of thing."
Many of his clients are stately homes, who find the models useful in portraying their house as it was in the past and attracting visitors.
Speaking about a recent recruitment, he said: "I was tapped on the shoulder and later signed an NDA - it was very James Bond-like."
Having studied graphic design and filmmaking, specialising in model animation, at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art from 1987 to 1990, Mr Taggart secured a position at Gerry Judah Studio as a designer and model marker, working for clients like the BBC and Channel 4.
He said: "It was absolutely amazing, I learnt all sorts of skills, but in the 90s the television work dried up."
Despite the rise of a digital age threatening the model industry, he founded his own model-making and design business in 1994, offering various scales of models and framed house portraits.
He said: "I saw a very clear path where model making is still vitally important."
He has worked with The National Trust, The Roman Baths Museum, and The Museum of Fulham Palace.
His larger projects have included a 12m model of Auschwitz for the Holocaust Exhibition at The Imperial War Museum, which was displayed for more than 20 years.
In addition to full-scale models, clients can commission miniatures of their homes accompanied by a 2,000-word history of their house, created in collaboration with his historian friend, Paul Murray.
Mr Taggart continued: "What I love about doing it is every project is different.
"One day I can be up in a Scottish castle and the next day a terraced house in Clapham."
His work process starts with an "old school and low tech" site visit, producing a scale drawing of the house before sending it for laser cutting.
Prices for a small house portrait model set in a hardwood box-frame start at £2,500, rising to £3,300 when including the house history.
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