Guillermo Rojas Bazan

Guillermo Rojas Bazan is an aviation model maker and researcher from Argentina. He is internationally renowned and considered unique and innovative in the field of museum quality airplane modeling in metal. His work has had a significant impact in the development of highly detailed model aircraft. Rojas Bazan has developed his own modeling techniques and is one of the only aircraft model builders to use aluminum. He is a true scratch builder, working completely by hand, foregoing electrical machines, except for a small compressor used for his airbrush.

During the first forty-five years of his career, while living and working in four different countries, he made more than 200 custom models for museums, art galleries, scale model companies, and collectors. He has been called the greatest aircraft model maker in the world by various sources.

Life and work
Guillermo Rojas Bazan was born in 1949 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Rojas Bazan received his education in both a technical engineering school and an art school. From 1981 to 1988, Rojas Bazan worked for the Instituto Aeronaval (Naval Air Institute) and the Argentine Air Force. During that time, he worked as a technical draftsman, aircraft illustrator, and designer. Additionally, he was commissioned to build all of the aircraft used in Argentina's Naval history, resulting in ninety-nine aircraft models built that are still currently on display.

In 1988, he left Argentina for Spain, where he built models for an aviation art gallery in London and produced replicas for collectors in the United States and Europe. While working for the London gallery, Rojas Bazan was able to choose which models he built, and made several of what he describes as non-commercial models, that all sold despite not being ordered. In 1994, he moved to the U.S. and was hired by Fine Art Models, a company located in Royal Oak, Michigan. During his years working for Fine Art Models, he made models in 1/15 scale that were copied in Eastern Europe and sold in limited editions. In recent years, he has worked as a freelance artist for collectors and museums.

Rojas Bazan's models are known for their high detail and weathering, giving the aircraft models their realism. Ann Cooper, a writer for Private Pilot magazine, explained that Rojas Bazan "doesn't just assemble parts and finish the exterior surfaces of his models, he loads them, inside and out, with rich, realistic detail work." Furthermore, there is a precision to details that are microscopic. Kelly Shaw of the magazine Fine Scale Modeler stated that "His all-metal scratch-builds are memorable for their undulating surfaces, variation in riveting, overlapping panels, and stressed skin. In photos, it's easy to mistake his models for real aircraft." Also noting that despite his success as a model maker, he has continued to strive for perfection. Moreover, Rojas Bazan’s models were lauded in letters by the University of Notre Dame, Christie's, and the U.S. Air Force and were referred to as the "Tiffany of Models," further explaining that his work is taking scale modeling around the world into a new dimension.

To make sure his models are accurate, Rojas Bazan relies on extensive research before beginning work on a model. This process takes a longer period of time when an aircraft has a greater complexity. Rojas Bazan’s research has involved construction plans, material samples, test samples, and talking to former pilots. His Junkers G 24 model was built despite the fact that none of those aircraft still exist, using photos and original publications. Rojas Bazan has explained how "a lot of kits get it wrong." He primarily specializes in models of aircraft built between 1925-1945. In 1995, Mike Knepper, a writer for Cigar Aficionado magazine named Rojas Bazan the "Mozart of Modeling."

Models
Rojas Bazan built eighty-seven models for Argentina’s National Museum of the Nation as a result of being commissioned to build every aircraft used in Argentina’s Naval history. He built an additional twelve models that were displayed in different locations in Argentina. At Fine Art Models, he built numerous models including the F-4UD Corsair, which was recognized as a masterpiece by the German magazine IQ. When discussing Rojas Bazan’s P-51 Mustang model, a former World War II pilot of that aircraft, said that the details in the model are the best that he has ever seen. When asked about which are his favorite models, Rojas Bazan said, 'I do not have only one favorite model, I have several. Many of them are planes from the period between 1920 and 1939, before WWII (golden age of aviation). These include the Northrop Gamma, Boeing B-15, Boeing YB-17 (prototypes on the great B-17), Martin B-10, Vought Vindicator, Curtiss Hawk III, Junkers G-38, Junkers G-24, Heinkel He70, Fairey Battle, etc. Many of these aircraft were not good machines, or have not been very popular, but I like them aesthetically.' One model that was built in Rojas Bazan's most recent freelancer era is a Mitsubishi A6M Zero that now resides in Japan and was promoted there as the best Zero replica ever built. His last completed model is a Ju 87 B-1 Stuka that is featured in one of his YouTube videos. In that video, he explains the archeological labor that he undergoes to complete his models in the most realistic way possible. He is currently working on a model of the Consolidated B-24H Liberator.

Recognition

 * At the North American Model Engineering Expo, Rojas Bazan accepted the Joe Martin Foundation Award for Craftsman of the Year (2013).
 * The University of Notre Dame, the U.S. Airforce, and Christie's have given Rojas Bazan letters of recognition.