He looks up to skies everytime an aeroplane flies across, ruing the fact that his childhood dream of becoming a pilot remained unfulfilled. A business analyst with a degree in textile chemical, there is something more to this 29-year-old which makes him ‘different’ from others.
Meet Atamjeet Singh Bawa, who loves to make quality paper models of airplanes, space shuttles, ships, motorbikes, trucks and rifles. It is the precision of his craft that makes the array of his scale models (there are about 26 of them) look life-like. You will be forgiven for mistaking them for real!
While doing his graduation in textile chemistry, Atamjeet decided to take his fascination for geometry and aeroplanes to another level. And how?
“I hunted for a book on airplane designing in my University library. Since there was no aeronautics department, there were hardly any books on the subject, but luckily I found one. From there came the idea of paper model,” says Atamjeet. He thought of choosing paper as the only material for making his models because “I did not want to spend money on metals or wires,” he says.
It took him almost a month to prepare an aeroplane model. “The main task was to make the model look mechanical,” he exclaims. To do so, he applied eight layers of aluminium paint on the parts of the model before giving a final shape.
The model was ready and he was all set to show his creativity to people around him. Atamjeet sent the pictures of the scale model to his friends, teachers, relatives and everyone he knew.
“There was appreciation from all around. But comments by DeWayne Barnett from Kentucky were inspiring. He gave a suggestion on expanding the contours of my skills and talked about the software and books on automobile design. His words instilled confidence in me,” says Atamjeet, who started making other models like bikes, trucks, ships, trains and rifle there. Meanwhile, his parents were a worried lot.
“While I was making the model of a Japanese navy ship, I stopped meeting my friends. I was totally engrossed in it and there was a phase when I constantly worked for 72 hours. For me it was very exciting, but my parents thought I was crazy,” says Atamjeet (smiles).
“Gradually, they realised that I was not confining myself to aloofness but getting attention from everyone,” says he.
Today, people know about his hobby of paper modelling and his boss is the first one to comment on his Facebook page (Atamjeet Paper Models). “He shares every picture I post on my page,” he says.