AFTER months of painstaking work, a model boat expert has restored a mini replica of a ship used in a Second World War mission and helped inspire the James Bond series.

Patrick Donnelly, 76, has put back together the model of the Main Honor, which was used during Operation Postmaster - a special expedition to West Africa by British forces carried out by the Small Scale Riding Force and the Special Operations Executive in January 1942.

After realising the historical value of the ship, Mr Donnelly of Captain Gardens, Colchester, and the model's owner have arranged for it to be placed at the Specialist Boat Services Museum in Poole, Dorset.

Mr Donnelly was contacted to take on the repair job by a man in Brightlingsea, who had found the battered model in his workshop.

He said: "It was a working workshop where things were being made and his wife had bought him the model from a junk shop.

"It had sunk deeper and deeper into the rubbish and had been forgotten.

"When he retired he didn't use the room much and when he was clearing it out, found this model boat which by this time was completely crushed.

"Just by coincidence he noticed the name was written under the stern and put it into a search engine before doing even more research.

"Somehow he tracked me down and even though it was in a bit of a state I was able to put it back together.

"After it was done we had a discussion about what was best to do with it and decided the museum might be the best place."

Legendary author Ian Fleming worked for the Special Operations Executive at the time of Operation Postmaster and Mr Donnelly said the mission had helped inspire his spy novels and was also the start of what is now known as the Special Air Service, or more commonly the SAS.

He said: "He wanted to write about his experiences but was blocked from doing so because it was all top secret.

"In order to write something about what he had been a part of he had to create the character of James Bond which obviously had lots of extra parts as well."

As well as restoring and building models, Mr Donnelly is an expert at making ships in bottles, although the technique is a closely guarded secret.

He said: "I started modelling when I retired, it is not something you can make a living out of but I had always been interested in boats.

"I think I have the smallest ship in the bottle in the world, the Guinness Book of Records has a different one but it doesn't have a sail on, where as mine does."