Ian Sneddon, 66, from Pollokshields, was inspired by the hard work of the association’s members when he read about their efforts in The News.

Incredibly, the generous pensioner decided to go one step further than donating money to the cause, and decided to create a foot long diorama of a World War 1 battlefield, complete with soldiers fighting in the trenches, craters and barbed wire.

The painstakingly created model was handed to association chairman Councillor Paul O’Kane on Friday.

Ian now hopes the association can generate some much needed funds from the auction or raffle of the model.

He said: “I had read the story in the Barrhead News when I was returning home from a visit to my friend in Barrhead.

“I have always been very interested in World War One and I had already built a couple of these models and donated them to the Army, and they seemed delighted with them.

“I thought I would do the same thing for the Neilston War Memorial Association because I think that what they are doing is a very worthwhile thing.” Ian began building the dioramas, made out of everything from plastic to balsa wood, as a side project from his normal hobby of building models of off-road model vehicles.

The diorama is intricately detailed, with German and British forces facing each other across a battle scarred no mans land, laced with craters and barbed wire fences.

The soldiers can even be seen aiming down the sights of their rifles as they stand on the parapets of their trenches.

Ian hopes that his attention to detail has captured the grime and horror of life in trench warfare.

He said: “I took a lot of inspiration from photos and old movies of World War One battlefields and many years ago I visited some of the real life battlefields in Europe.

“A lot of it is left to your imagination however.” The model even features a miniature piper, playing the soldiers off to battle as they go ‘over the top’ of the trench.

Association chairman Paul O’Kane received the model at an official hand over at The Dancing Goat in Neilston on Friday.

He said: “It’s a fantastic donation for the association to receive, and we can see how much effort has went into creating this model.”