Aircraft Models
With a handful of ship models successfully under our belt, we turned our attention to the “impossible,” produce exact replicas of airplanes - in aluminum - with no compromise. Needless to say, everyone thought we were crazy (and perhaps we are). So where to start? Back when this idea was just that – an idea, we had read a story about an Argentine, named Guillermo Rojas Bazan who had been building airplane models in aluminum for many years. His work looked quite good and our thought was that he just might have the knowledge and technology necessary to realize the impossible.
We tracked Guillermo from Argentina to Spain and then on to Israel. When we located him (or rather those that knew him) in Israel, we were told he had moved to the United States. As it turns out, Guillermo and his family had been promised the world by some American enthusiast if he would come to the U.S. and build models. When we finally got a break and located him one Saturday evening in New York, we offered to bring him to Michigan to work with us on our World War II Corsair prototype. Thankfully, he accepted. Today Guillermo and his family are US citizens living in Michigan. He continues to build the most exquisite aircraft prototypes for us.
The original thought was that his creations could serve as a pilot model for our limited edition models. But, because of the difference in a one-off model and creating fuselage panels for a series production, it became apparent to us that this would not work (even Guillermo thought the concept of a series production was insane). It was our ship builders who finally turned us on to a couple of fellow Russians just as passionate about airplanes (they had built a 1/4 scale all metal flying airplane model) as they were about ships. After three years of excruciating development, we began our limited production of the Corsair. The end result was the impossible achieved - models that truly defy belief.
We’re pretty sure you won’t find better models in museums anywhere (take a look at the detail in our WWI Nieuport 11 and Fokker Dr.I). And if there are, we don't know about them.
Fine Art Models, P.O.Box 225, Birmingham, Michigan, 48012, USA | Tel: 248.288.5155 | Fax: 248.288.4412