A retired British oil rig worker has claimed the record for creating the world's biggest matchstick model - using four million pieces.
David Reynolds, 51, has spent 15 years creating the replica of a North Sea oil platform and invested £5,000 on glue and matchsticks.
The finished model weighs one tonne and is 12ft tall and 21ft long. His creation has now been officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's biggest matchstick model - with 4,075,000 million individual matchsticks.
The previous biggest was a recreation of the Titanic using 3.5million. Mr Reynolds, who lives with his wife Julie, 49, in Southampton, described the remarkable model as a hobby which 'got out of hand'.
He said: 'People sit in front of the television for five or six hours a night but I get bored so I'd just nip off for a few hours here and there to work on it.
'It just started as a bit of a hobby but I guess it got out of hand. 'I never really gave it much thought but when people came round they'd comment on how incredible it was. I suppose I got quite complacent about it.
'It's good fun and keeps the grey matter working.' Mr Reynolds, who was medically retired in 1998, first started work on the replica of the Brent Bravo rig in the summer of 1994.
The former engineer, who worked on temporary oil rigs in the 1980s, has recreated the platform, which he has dubbed the Cathedrals of the Sea, in painstaking detail.
His model includes the accommodation block for rig workers, the flotilla of ships moored to the rig, the platforms and towers.
He spent between two and ten hours a day dabbling with the model - a total of 32,000 hours over the 15 year labour of love.
The model became so big it had to be split into 14 different sections and housed in various rooms throughout his home.
It was finally assembled into one piece at the Bursledon Brickworks Museum in Southampton in March this year.
Mr Reynolds says he has been contacted by museums in the US who have offered to buy it.
He added: 'It wasn't as though I set out to make something so huge but it just grew and grew.
'I wasn't even sure it would all fit together and it was quite nerve-racking when I assembled it.
'I've had a few museums contact me to say they want to buy it and there's even been an offer from Hollywood.'
But his wife Julie said: 'I am absolutely sick to death at the sight of a matchstick but I think there is still more to come unfortunately.
'But at least I know where he is and what he's doing, so I'd rather have him there than down the pub.'
Mr Reynolds has already started on his next project - an armada of matchstick ships.
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