So this is it! The Ford Tri-motor designed by Peter A. Zorn Jr. in 1982. Digitally restored in 2011, and painted in the colors of the Colombian airline SCADTA in 2012
Comments
This is a beautiful kit, from a time when paper kits were drawn by hand. It may look a bit simple by today standards, and some may say that it is not a perfect replica of a Ford Tri-Motor in certain details. But the truth is that the result is impressive. Besides, the shape and proportions are very accurate. The solutions to some volumes and elements of the plane are very clever and allow getting a good representation of the real thing by means of easy assemblies. If a modeler wants to add detail, there is plenty of room to do it. There are just a couple of difficult spots, but nothing serious. It is recommended that you think beforehand where to use cyanocrilate to give more strength to certain parts. Also, plan the whole process before starting.
The fitting of the parts is good. Take into account the following: the digital version of the kit was re-drawn based on scans of the original printed book (which was painstakingly drawn by hand). So, some small differences were unavoidable in the whole process. As I cut the parts I noticed the new digital version had small differences of up to 1mm compared to the original parts. This is a minor problem, but it may affect the perfect fitting of some parts. So be careful and always test the parts before glueing. Trim if necessary; add shims of paper when needed, and glue carefully. If you exercise patience, good judgment and follow your modeling instinct you will be able to make a very good paper model of this classic plane.
Remember that you can download the Tri-Motor kit
for free from
http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=1080
It comes in 11 different liveries including American Airlines, TAT, Grand Canyon, TWA “City of Philadelphia”, Indiana Jones’ “Lao Che” transport, and some more.
My gratitude goes to all the people who have commented in this thread, not only here but in other forums too. The reception this model has had makes me happy. And the support of everyone is treasured in my heart. Thanks a lot for your comments, suggestions, and advices.
I shared this build in other forums, and I wish to thank them all. You can find the same thread there.
So, thanks a lot to all of you. And to all the people at:
Paper Modelers
http://www.papermodelers.com
Zealot
http://www.zealot.com
Kartonbau
http://www.kartonbau.de
Maquetas y Modelismo en papel:
http://maquetasenpapel.mforos.com/
Papercraft America:
http://papercraft.mforos.com/
Mequetas de Papel:
http://www.maquetasdepapel.com.ar/
Swanny’s Models:
http://www.swannysmodels.com/yabb2/YaBB.pl
IPMS Bogota:
www.network54.com/Forum/219512/
And last, but definitely not the least, thanks a lot to Peter for designing this beautiful kit, and for allowing it to be distributed for free. My deep gratitude.
See you in the next build!!!!!
Rubén Andrés.