Star Wars mega-fan Mark Donald has spent four years and around £11,000 transforming his back garden into a Skywalker saga museum.
Character models and homemade droids sit among ferns planted to resemble the world of the Ewoks, while a shipment of sand is on its way to help recreate the home of Luke Skywalker.
For Mark, 45, from Forres, who has been obsessed with the movies since going to see Star Wars as a toddler, the museum has been a labour of love.
He said: “It all started when I saw a speeder bike advertised, that someone had made.
“It was something like $4,000 or $5,000. I had a good bit of money, but I couldn’t see a way to actually buy it.
“I thought I could really do with one of them, but no one’s really making them, so maybe I could make it – some guys were saying ‘you should do it yourself ’.
“‘Do or do not, there is no try’, as Yoda said.”
Using items around his house, including string, a foam board, a snooker triangle, and a 10in toy as a reference guide, Mark built the 10ft speeder bike.
He added: “I realised, as I was making that, actually I’m going to make an outside garden museum.
“I’m going to need to do all the props first, because there’s no point in creating a garden if there’s nothing in it. I thought if I’ve got all the props I need, I can gradually create the landscape around it all.”
He cut the cables from an old bike to create a droid’s power cables and used a child’s helmet for another one’s belly.
A plant pot became foot pedals for a speeder bike. The legs from a sofa bed became stands for a fire pit.
Four years later, and Mark has built a half dozen robots, five ships and a moisture evaporator to display alongside around 20 life-size characters he bought separately.
He said: “I didn’t even know I could make stuff – when I was in school I’d make a cup holder or something, but other than that I’d never tried anything.
“I’ve got a jigsaw and a drill, and those are the only two tools I’ve got. You’ve got people who use 3D printers and that kind of stuff.
“There are other basic things like a hammer and screws, and that’s as fancy as I get.”
Mark, who works in a restaurant in Nairn, says his favourite models are his X-wing and his podracer, while his daughters Nicole and Caitlyn are also big fans of the X-wing ship.
Once it is complete, he is hoping to open the garden up to visitors who also want a chance to explore, and some interest has already been registered from overseas.
And with the new ObiWan Kenobi TV series rumoured to be filming in the southern Cairngorms, Scotland could be attracting many more film fans in the near future.
