[FRD]

This is a digital reproduction of the very first model I ever drew, at the age of 22, way back in 1983. (36 years ago)

In 1983 I was VERY fortunate to have been living as a young adult in the beautiful, Columbia River Gorge, a mountainous region separating the State of Washington from the State of Oregon, divided by the mighty Columbia River.

I was fortunate enough to watch as the keel of this ship was laid and as the ship it’s self was being built at the Nichol’s boat works in Hood River Oregon, before it’s maiden voyage I was well on my way to designing a model of it.

The initial proposal was that I would design and build two wooden display models, one for the Port of Cascade Locks and the second for myself, the General Manager of the Port was gracious enough to provide the needed plans.

The idea was so thoroughly welcomed that it was then proposed that it be in a medium that could be easily mass produced, available to the general public and “paper” came to mind, I designed it having NEVER seen a paper model before as my interest was in, “promotional materials” and not in, “paper models”.

The original model was crude by today’s standards, drafted by hand, pen and ink, color separation done by hand cutting, “rubylith”, it required 21 printing plates to be made, to be printed on a four drum, offset printing press, one plate for each color, on each sheet.

500 were initially printed, 200 of which sold locally in the, “Gorge” when somehow, Lou Dausse, “got wind of it” and, “tracked me down” as PMI formed that same year and was located in Beaverton Oregon, only about 50 miles away.

Purchasing the remaining 300 copies for PMI, they quickly sold out then the copyright was purchased that they may be, “produced at will” I have no idea how many he eventually printed.

On our first meeting, he showed me the PMI catalog and I was astounded!, (if not amazed!) I had never seen a paper model before I drew one and now, here I was with hundreds of them, “in my hands” from all over the world (or so it seemed) for a kid in the Gorge, I suddenly, “had the world at my finger tips”.

I never forgot that first sense of amazement and vowed from that day forward to design models for those who have never seen a paper model before, perhaps that they may be introduced, as I was, “open eyed” to this age old and much loved art form.

Fast forward, a lot of, “water under the bridge” I always wanted to bring that very first model up to today’s standards that it might be shared more broadly in today’s, digital mediums, while it appears to be simplistic, every effort was made to stay as true to the original as possible.

Here are a few images of the cover sheets.