Howdy Kevin,
Yes that is what I did in order to get the mesh that sjsquirrel is now working on. I simply contacted the designer, was upfront with what I wanted to see done with his 3d model and informed him that should a paper model be made based on his 3d model, he would be given credit for being the designer of the 3d portion on the paper model.
Usually, if you are up front with people, they are more than happy to accomodate you, the designer of the air tractor mesh that I got had already tried to make a paper model of it, but not knowing anything about paper models, had never undertook it seriously so he was more than happy to supply me with the mesh.
Have a good day,
Greg aka GW