My Story

GUILLERMO ROJAS-BAZAN

In the 1930’s and 1940’s, publications like “Model Airplane News” had scale aircraft drawings and plans (Some of them with many errors) made by artists such as William Wylam, and Willis L. Nye who helped the booming and development of the scale aircraft models.

Plastic kits weren’t in existence yet. Although there were a few balsa kits in the market, the majority of modelers had to construct their models from scratch. This means that the builder was literally a "modeler" because he needed to shape his aircraft from scratch. This  promoted the appearance of  skilled model makers, i.e. masters in scratchbuilding.

My father was one of them. He was one of the precursors of using metal for scale model construction.

In 1931, a newspaper from Buenos-Aires, Argentina, published an article about him.

Over the old piece of that newspaper, already yellow, can hardly be recognized the photograph of a teenager holding a “Santos Dumont” and the title reads: “Aviation Engineer”. Then, the article continues: Do you know who is the kid with airplanes? Is Guillermo Rojas-Bazan  and he is 15 years old…

In the next year, during the premiere of the film, FP-1 NO ANSWER (FP1 Antwortet Nicht), in Buenos Aires, the theatre hung one of his models, the Junkers W-33, made with corrugated metal, with all the movements controlled from the cockpit.

Another model built by my father that also was in many expositions, was the Laté 25 that flew over the Argentinean sky piloted by the famous aviator and author of the “Le Petit Prince” (“The Little Prince”) the unforgettable Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Despite all the above, for my father, this was only a hobby.

My father couldn’t continue with engineer aviation because he needed to be a provider for his siblings from a young age by working as a teller and later as a manager in a Bank.

In the course of events, my father married my mother who was a dedicated high-school teacher.

I am the second of four siblings, the first boy, and  like my father, my first name is Guillermo.

I was born April 23,1949. Sure…. my first toys were airplanes. My first magazines and books were also about airplanes, Skyways, Bill Barnes etc.

In the 50’s, there was an airplane fashion booming in my country. Kurt Tank, Adolf Galland, Werner Baumbach, Hans Rudel and Reimar Horten lived there. The Pulqui II was the “star” of the national industry.

But I was fascinated with two old planes that flew in Argentina in the 40’s: the Martin 139 (B-10) and the Northrop 8A (A-17).

When I was eight years old I scratch-built both models of cardboard, using as references my father’s magazines photos.

Years later, I was in the middle of the plastic kit fever. I had begun to build the Lindberg’s Curtiss Jenny, the Aurora kits and finally the complete 1/72 Airfix collection.

As I grew older, I left the plastic kit construction. I worked only from scratch - building in wood, and finally in aluminum sheet.

I studied in a technical school, I was a musician and I worked as an illustrator.

In 1981 I was hired by the Fuerza Aerea Argentina where I worked as a technical draftsman. In 1982, during the Malvinas (Falkland) war, I was moved to the Museo Nacional de Aeronáutica, as a builder of aluminum scale aircraft replicas.

My hobby had now become my profession.

In 1983 I was hired by the Armada Argentina as builder of the 87 models of naval airplanes for the Museo Naval, where they are still on display.

In 1988, I moved to Spain where I produced many models for a London Gallery of Aviation Art. The models were sold to serious scale aircraft replica collectors of Europe and the USA. 

During my years in Madrid, I never ever received a commission for a specific model. I simply made the models that I liked and that I wanted to do. I mostly used 1/25 scale, which allowed me to save time in the construction of multi-engine models. Thanks to this situation, I was able to make many of my “non commercial” favorites (which I enjoyed very much), like the Curtiss Shrike, Douglas Devastator, Bristol Blenheim, Northrop Gamma, Junkers Ju 86, YB-17 prototype and the Handley Page Halifax, models that probably would never have been commissioned.  All of them were sold!

Two years later, I met and married Argentine born Clarisa and moved with her to Israel, were she was a social worker.

In the late 80’s, I decided that my area of interest would be the Second World War airplanes.

Although I was not widely known, I had a small following of collectors in the USA and was known to people in the world of expensive, one-of-a-kind models. 

In 1994 we moved to New York State. We didn’t have the immigration green card and we wanted to remain in the USA.

One who knew of my work is Mr. Gary Kohs who owns Fine Art Models in Royal Oak, Michigan. He tracked me down, learned of our problems and made us an offer: I would make the best 1/15 scale airplanes ever executed, and Mr. Kohs would have them replicated by craftsmen in Ukraine to be sold in limited quantities.  Mr. Kohs had faith in my capacity, asked me to work for his company, applied, processed and obtained our green cards (permanent resident card).  I agreed  to his offer and we moved to Michigan, where we currently live.

I am and have been for the last eight years dedicated to his company. Also, I have transferred a big part of my knowledge that I have acquired over my lifetime to his craftsmen in east Europe so they can copy and make limited editions of my models.

Although we miss our family and friends around the world, we are enjoying many new friends and the beautiful  Michigan environment.