Presidents and dignitaries around the world adorn their offices with Russ French's model ships and planes.

Global defence companies rely on his hand-made prototypes to help secure government contracts worth billions of dollars. These are no toys.

And yet, even though Mr French's creations are in high demand, you won't find his office in London or New York. Every part is painstakingly made, by hand, at his Uralla workshop in regional NSW, a town of little more than 2,000 people.

Russ French in his workshop. ( ABC New England: Matt Bedford )

Mr French has been building models all his life.

But nearly 20 years into a successful Australian Navy career, an opportunity to swap life at sea for building military models full-time was too good to pass.

"I'd built a model of one of the new guided missile frigates … the shipyard found out about it and said, 'We've heard it's pretty good, how would you like to bring it down for the launch'?" Mr French said.

"The engineers had a look and said, 'We've had models made recently and they're nothing compared to what you're doing, would you be able to build us another one'?"

Mr French was soon overwhelmed with work and eventually left the navy.

"[My boss] said, it's not going to work, you'll be back — but I never looked back," Mr French said.

And although it was now almost two decades since he left the navy, it was his military career that was giving him an edge when creating new designs.

Most of Mr French's work is custom built, piece by piece, from blank sheet and rods of plastic.

When creating a new prototype, his first-hand knowledge of how a ship worked helped him craft a more accurate model.

The models are made by hand from detailed specifications. ( ABC New England: Matt Bedford )

"Having served on ships … if I'm looking at a certain section … I've probably used it or seen it in operation, so I know how it works," Mr French said.

There had even been instances where Mr French had advised clients to rethink part of the design.

"I did a vessel a few years ago … I told them that they probably needed to change something and then when we went on to the ship a few years later, I noticed that they'd actually redesigned the compartment," he said.

"Hopefully we saved them a bit of embarrassment and a rebuild."

The master model maker creates prototype military vehicles and ships for the defence industry. ( ABC New England: Matt Bedford )

Over the years, Mr French has received visits from VIPs like the Governor-General, and his customers have included a French president, a Canadian prime minister — the Pentagon even holds one of his models.

"Of course, we can't go in there to see if it's still there," Mr French said.