Holy Grosvenor!

HE BUILT Gotham City, home of caped crusaders Batman and Robin. Now model-maker Mark Fleming has designs on a new metropolis - Liverpool city centre.

His Gotham Cathedral model was the centrepiece in a dramatic scene near the finale when Batman's Batwing plane crashed into the steps of the cathedral.

It is a scene Mr Fleming has watched time and time again, as the model cathedral he built took the impact of the dramatic crash landing.

This week, Mr Fleming, 37, originally from Old Roan and brought up in Southport, has seen his latest work opened to the public. But it will not feature in any wide-screen action.

He has helped build a 1:200 scale model of Liverpool's £850m Paradise Street redevelopment scheme.

It will now be used as the centrepiece of Grosvenor's new drop-in centre in Lord Street.

Grosvenor's project architects, BDP, awarded the contract for the model to Liverpool firm Static Models and Design, who beat off international competition for the work.

It took manager Mark and his team six weeks to build the model in maple wood to illustrate what the project spanning more than 40 acres of the city centre will look like. Paul Sullivan, director and founder of Static, described the winning of the contract as an essential barometer of how the business has progressed over the past 10 years.

"There was very stiff competition to win the contract to construct such a high-profile model.

"The commission demonstrates that an international company like Grosvenor is prepared to award contracts to Liverpool companies to undertake highly-skilled work.

"It shows confidence in our skills and the region's creative industries."

The Paradise scheme model is a design tool, made of hundreds of individual pieces so that it can be added to to test ideas. It is like a huge three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

The skills that went into building the model were similar to those used by Mr Fleming when he worked at Shepperton for DBP, now known as ModelWorks. As well as working on the construction of Gotham City, Mr Fleming made models for hundreds of television advertisements, as well as the Judge Dredd movie.

He said: "Batman was issued in 1989 and we worked on the models a year earlier. It was before the age of digital computer work.

"I have seen the film quite a few times and it looks so realistic. It was great making models and sets using optical effects. Batman was the first big film I worked on after joining DBP and I am really proud of it. The film used models and optical effects to create the drama, unlike most modern films which use computer-generated effects.

"I am also proud of the Grosvenor model. It has been designed so that pieces can be added or removed as the scheme develops." Rod Holmes, Grosvenor's project director, said: "We are delighted with the model."

* The 1989 Batman film from Warner starred Jack Nicholson as The Joker, Jerry Hall and Kim Basinger. Michael Keaton played Batman. By Larry Neild, Daily Post

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