Southsea Model Village owners celebrate 'absolutely unbelievable' first year
Mark Wilson and his wife Emma have celebrated their first anniversary of running Southsea Model Village
The owners of Southsea Model Village have celebrated their first anniversary of running the village after a year of designing scenes, printing new figures and making people smile through their social media channels.
Mark Wilson and his wife Emma had previously run the village with Mark’s brother Dean, but bought him out of the business last year to become the sole owners. They now run the attraction alongside working full time but say that the past year has been “absolutely unbelievable”.
“The reviews we’re getting are fantastic, we’re getting lovely comments from people every day,” said Mark.
“I get to run it now, I don’t have to run my ideas past other people, it’s been great,” he said.
“I absolutely love it. I’ve got to come up with stupid silly little ideas while I’m sat working during the day and then I go and put them into reality.”
In the past year, Mark and Emma have designed many wild and wacky scenes, including a carnival, complete with a strongman and kangaroo boxing, trains painted to support the England football team and a replica of Brocante on Castle Road to celebrate the shop owner David Evans’ birthday.
“I bought a 3D printer to print out figures, so now I’ve got a nonstop factory line of new figures coming out every day,” said Mark.
“I’m currently building a rock monument thing for hippies, it's probably going to be called Stoner’s Henge, and I’ve got a cable car going in through the winter.”
The model village will also be going international with the construction of an airport.
The village will also be primed for Halloween, who last year faced a skeleton invasion.
“We had an invasion of about 400 or 500 different sized skeletons… but this year the villagers are going to be fighting back!”
Mark has also secured a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the film Ghostbusters that is “the size of a house”.
The attraction also holds events throughout the year, with visitors this year being able to enjoy magic shows, falconry and visits from a reptile zoo.
“There will be much more events next year but the only struggle is going to be that the seafront defence work starts in February, and that’s going to be on for 16 months,” Mark said.
“The car park is going to be closed and access to the village from the seafront is going to be closed, so it will be a struggle.
“But, it just gives me time to put more in and do more stuff in the village!”