Page 27
When I once tried to draw a pencil drawing
of Manfred von Richthofen‘s Albatros after the
emergency landing in July 1917, I showed it to my
friend, the aviation artist Pavel Rampír. He looked
at the drawing carefully and then said to me: “You
know, Jan, it is clear in this drawing that you have
a gift from God, but it is also clear that you don‘t
know what you are doing with this pencil!”. This
inspired me and so in 2014 I found an art studio in
Prague, not far from my office, where my current
friend Pavlína Pavliš worked as a lecturer.
Under her guidance I started to supplement
my education. Her advice really helped me
a lot, as did the advice of my female classmates,
who were mostly architects, civil or chemical
engineers. The experience of Pavlína‘s lessons
helped me to take my rabbits a step further, but
I also enjoyed creating some classic aviation
themes under her guidance. I will continue to do
this from time to time.
It‘s obvious that the rabbit is doing
a good job, including socializing its
author! How would you yourself
rate the rabbit‘s contribution to the
modelling community?
We introduced the rabbit to Eduard media
14 years ago because we felt the scale modelling
community needed some humour, perspective,
and relaxation. If that‘s what our rabbits bring,
that‘s exactly why I draw them. And maybe
sometime in the future we‘ll create a 3D printed
1/48 scale rabbit, which modelers sometimes ask
about. With an aviator helmet, goggles and scarf,
he might be nice. Maybe there will be a carrot too.
Your - our rabbits have your own
historical knowledge and your
linguistic equipment as background.
Your historical knowledge goes
through World War I to the various
air forces of World War II, and is
anything but superficial. Where did all
this come from? You haven‘t studied
history, or am I wrong?
Unfortunately I haven‘t yet really studied history.
I was thoroughly encouraged to take an interest in
history, in a very broad sense, by my father. When
I was a kid, he built plastic model airplanes for
me, and later I started building them myself and
became increasingly focused on military aircraft
and WWII. From there, it was a fairly quick path to
reading publications on the subject and memoirs
of famous aviators, although it wasn‘t easy to get
hold of them under the pro-Soviet communist
government. Russian was compulsory then, but
I learned English and Polish voluntarily because
of the magazines and books on aviation. When
the Iron Curtain fell, it was possible to get access
to practically any foreign literature if you knew
how and where to get it in Europe or at home.
I searched like a wild man, most interested in
fighter units and air aces. I became more and
more interested in the air forces of Germany
INTERVIEW
Jan Bobek creating quick drawings during the Novemberfest event at Eduard in 2015.
Jan Bobek with his friend and art lecturer Pavlína Pavliš.
INFO Eduard
27
January 2024