Re-colouring the Ford Trimotor by Peter Zorn

[Leif Ohlsson]

Kinda impressive, though...

[Rubenandres77]

Dear members of the forum:
I have a special announcement to make.

If you have followed this thread you are probably all aware
of the fact that this recolouring thread started with lots
of energy, and several updates every week, but after some time
updates were more spaced, and the process became slow.

Well, there was a very good reason for it.
In fact, several reasons.

And I’ll explain it now:

From the early stages of this project, I was determined to make
of this a good work that properly honors the original kit.

That’s why I’ve been working on it with several ideas in mind
that have been implemented parallel to the vectorising project.
And in this process I’ve counted with the support and feedback
of some nice people.

I’ve also had a couple of crazy ideas that are coming along
very well and will probably be received positively.

The fact is, to make a long story short, that I needed to buy
some time while I advanced secretly on this vectorising process
and on the other ideas.

But this project has grown a lot, and now it has come to a point
where (some of) its secrets need to be made public.

And now is where I make my confession:

I already finished the vectorization of all the original parts
several weeks ago. And I have advanced on the colorization of
some of the liveries.

I need to confess this, because it is needed for you to
understand that very soon Billy will start a building report
using the parts I’ve been sending to him.

This with four goals in mind:
1) to show you all a preview of the digital version of this kit,
2) to serve as “beta” build to corroborate that everything
is properly re-traced and coloured (some parts had to be slightly
modified to fit A4 and letter size papers.
3) to provide new photos for the cover art of the kit….

And the fourth reason (probably the most important of all),
will be revealed to you when you follow Billy’s build.
I’m sure you all will agree with it

I hope you enjoy Billy’s build (I’m sure you will).

He proposed to have the building process here, and I agree.
That way, everything related to this digital version of the
Ford Tri-motor kit will be kept in one single place

I’m sure that this will result in a more enjoyable and memorable
experience for all of us, rather than just a having a quick
and very ephemeral surprise (as I originally intended).


Not everything is ready. There’s still a lot of work
to be made before this kit is completely finished.
Many parts still need colour, and the transcription and
vectorization of the assembly instructions has not even begun.

Not to mention that the final design of the kit, the placement
of the parts on pages and all that jazz is still being worked.

So while Billy posts his building, I will work on what's left.
Hopefully, we'll finish at the same time, so that the kit can be
made available when he completes the model.



I hope you will forgive me for hiding this from you.
And I wish you understand now why I had so many trivia interspersed
with the updates, and why those updates were so delayed.

But I’m sure you will be relieved to know that this kit won’t
take as long as it was looking.

I will however post more things here. In the following days,
and while Billy posts his report, I will update with some images
of the finished parts, and will show the advances on the liveries.
And of course will keep updating this until I consider this process
is finished.

See you soon!

[Zathros]

And the excitement grows!! This sounds really great and with Billy doing the build, well the outcome is all but guaranteed!

[Leif Ohlsson]

Good to hear! (Never doubted, but still...).

Leif

[Ron40]

Ruben,
Now the secret will be out with Billy's build.
I know it will please the forum members.

Billy,
Looking forward to your build.

Ron

[billy.leliveld]

Well, the secret is out, and Ron was in on this, but I felt a bit lonely, doing the build off-line, at first Ruben , Ron and me would keep this a surprise for Peter Zorn, but I'm building Ruben's recoloring , and it is the Island Airlines version,depicted in the original kit, with a very young mr Zorn beside the plane so now everybody can enjoy the build....

[SJPONeill]

Wow!!! This is even cooler than getting a letter from the real Santa saying to expect an great Christmas!!!

Model on!!!!

[billy.leliveld]

And let me add that it will show how much work Ruben is putting into this project; he is doing a enormous job, and it doesn't matter if it takes time, we are in this for fun or at least enjoy ourselfs and all of you

[Rubenandres77]

As mentioned above, all the parts were finished
some weeks ago.

I kept the same pace, because I knew that if
I took a rest things would not go smooth. The
remaining pages were made rather quickly.

There was another reason to finish this as soon
as possible: Billy needed the parts for his build.


Page 10 is shown here, with a primitive green
interior. The green was temporal, only to guide
me through the process. Parts 4, 5 and 6 were
probably the most difficult and tedious of all,
because the objects needed to be properly
placed to have the possibility of different colours.

There will be three optional interiors: Wood, Green
and metallic (corrugated).


Page 11 was rather easy, because it was almost
identical to page 6.


Page 12 offered one of the biggest challenges.
It has the largest part of all the kit. And there was
no way to have that part properly placed in a single
A4 or Letter size paper.

Since that part (35) is actually a sister to part 36,
I opted for a solution that may be controversial in
terms of adherence to the original design: I joined
parts 35&36 in a single one. That means that the
resulting part 35+36 is an even bigger part. But once
split again in two, but in a different way, both were
perfectly manageable, and fitted nicely in the page.



Little can be said about page 13. Except that you
really don't want to match parallel lines that are
inclined



Page 14 was also a piece of cake.



Pages 15 and 16 were a bit difficult because the
corrugated aluminum lines had to be matched to
those on pages 1 and 2. But that was solved in
a rainy afternoon.


I didn't vectorized pages 17&18 and the optional
colour "decals". Reason being that the parts on
those pages are included in the digital colouring
of the different liveries.


And that's how the main vectorizing project was finished.

I compared the vector lines to the original pages several
times to assure that they coincide closely.

If there are any differences between the original scans
provided by Billy and the vector lines, they must be
well under a 0.5 mm tolerance. I think even under 0.3 mm.
Which is small enough as to be almost unnoticeable.

In any case, do not forget to practice what every modellist
should always do: test, compare, dry-fit, and test again
to be sure everything will be alright.

Deckape didn't mentioned any fitting or alignment problems
during his build. And this electronic files should be flawless
too since they follow each one of the original lines. In any
case, Billy's build will corroborate that, or will expose any
mistakes I may have made.


After finishing this vectorizing of the pages, I did rest.
What was to come is something I'm still doing now:
adding colour to the parts. And believe me: creating
the optional liveries is not easy. It has been a long
and slow process. But it will be worth it

[Ron40]

Ruben,
If the pages shown are an indication of what is to come
I think you did one hell of a job. The optional liveries and
the black and white line drawing which allows modelers to
create their own liveries is icing on the cake. You are to
be commended for your hard work on this project. I know
that Peter Zorn will be pleased with what you've accomplished.
Ron

Ron