Sam Butcher is as happy as a kid in a toy shop.
The Canterbury University student has been playing with Lego for as long as he can remember and now, at 20, is making money from his passion for the plastic building blocks.
Last year he was commissioned to build a scale model oil rig for a New Zealand Greenpeace display; this year he is building a one-eighth scale model of a 1939 Dodge Airflow Texaco tanker for the redeveloped Bill Richardson Transport World in Invercargill.
He also imports and sells specialty Lego and organises the annual New Zealand Lego Users Group Brick Show held in Christchurch.
Mr Butcher said he was approached to build the model tanker after Christchurch friends recommended him to Transport World operations manager Sally McDonald.
He designed the 1m-long model himself after flying down to measure and photograph the tanker.
Mr Butcher said the tanker had been slowly taking shape in his home office over the past six months.
He would use an estimated 11,000 bricks - almost all of them red.
The tanker would be one of hundreds of models on display at the brick show next week.
While not exactly sure what the modellers would bring with them this year, there would be vehicles, skyscrapers, Star Wars models and a city streetscape, Mr Butcher said.