A list of electronic delivery paper model companies

[Leif Oh]

[Not all of the sites below carry electronic delivery models exclusively; the list should be amended with detailed links to electronic delivery sections. Some offer CDs of models, which meet the criterion of quality and reproducability, but not of immediate delivery. This should also be detailed. Manufacturers, dealers, and members - please chip in and post your prefered information and suggestions. And all of us, please let's remember to post an amendment whenever we come across a special section for downloadables at a retailer's site!]

Card-Models.com. Aircraft, plus some other models. Carries the Modelart models by Dr. Emil Zarkov.

Daisey Designs High-Performance Card Models. 1/18 scale Indy cars, classic racing aircraft. Electronic download only.

Digital Card Models (Steve Bucher). Aircraft on CD, often scaleable, software included. Website under reconstruction after being down for a while. Steve tells me that CDs will include pdf and Illustrator formats, and software will be PC compatible. For Macs there will be a Share Draw format allowing editing. New versions along these lines for Nieuport and SPAD soon finished. Meanwhile, any inquires (also for designers wishing to convert their files - vector format only!) to <sbucher@localnet.com>.

Digital Navy (Roman). Mainly ships but also some aircraft (among them the P26 "Peashooter" in several liveries).

E-papermodels; link takes you directly to Scale Paper International (see below).

Fiddler's Green. Classic site, mostly aircraft, mostly to a common scale of 1/60. CD collections and downloads of individual models.

GreMir Models (Michael Krol). Aircraft and ships, CD only. Software included requires Windows 95 or later (i.e. no Mac or Linux).

Hobby Factory. Special section for downloadable models. Digital Card Models only at the moment (see above for direct link).

Kancho's Paper Wings (Kancho Iliev). Aircraft & missiles.

Lighthouse Model Art. Canadian firm, large selection of paper models from a wide variety of manufacturers. Special section for CD models. No special section (that I found; correct me if I'm wrong) of electronically delivered models.

ML Paper Models (Moshe Lemur). 1/32 Scale Kits By ModelArt.

Paper Scale Model Airplanes (DeWayne Barnett). A rapidly increasing range of 1/50 and 1/33 aircraft models, mostly downloadable, a few on CD only.

Papertigerarmaments.com. Armour & accompanying vehicles.

Paperwarbirds.com. (Wings of Horus; carries in addition Digital Card Models, and Thaipaperwork; for these see also separate entries).

Scale Paper International (Spishop, Joseph's shop in Prague, site also known as e-papermodels). Electronic delivery of (at least): PModels (aircraft) and Digital Card Models.

Sero-Paperwarbirds (not identical with Paperwarbirds.com above). Maker of the 1/33 series of Fokker Dr.Is in authentic colours. Hardcopy by mail or retailer; downloadable pdf-files for the same price (€8.80, but you get them quicker, and don't have to pay €3.50 in postage).

Thai Paperwork (Nobi). Aircraft. All electronic delivery.

Wilhelmshaven. Special list of downloadable models.
[List updated on basis of postings to follow.]

[Leif Oh]

Friends,

I think many of us agree that electronic delivery of models is both a logical consequence and a desirable goal of paper modeling for a number of reasons: You can scale models without losing quality and bypass the cumbersome scanning process many of us regularly perform; you get the increased security of always being able to print an extra sheet when you mess things up; you get immediate delivery; and you save the (sometimes very costly) price of postage and handling.

To that end it is only logical that we collectively try to make up a list of designers and dealers who provide electronic delivery of paper models. Not having seen a comprehensive such list, I just thought I'd start one by making up a thread for it. I asked Ron to make the list a "Sticky", which means it comes at the top whatever order you choose to view other posts in, and I will add to it all information coming in through other postings. (Which means that the "Sticky" will be edited a lot of times, believe you me!)

All of you wanting to contribute (designers, manufacturers, dealers, and members), please do so in the form of regular postings below. As often as I can, I'll endeavour to complete the top list. If, at times, I can't keep up, there'll always be your own posting below to make up for my lapses.

I hope this is agreeable to all. If not, just holler. And please do not regard the list as anything but a start. There's no favouritism and no preferences involved, just my ignorance - which is why I suddenly felt an urge to make this list in the first place.

Best to all of you, Leif

[cmdrted]

http://www.card-models.com/ Don't forget Dr. Zarkov and Kancho, sorry bud I can't find your address but he is designing that ground attack henschal. Moshe Lemur has some downloads also. Mostly Dr. Zarkov's kits. Wilhelmshaven has some ships and a few aircraft.

[cmdrted]

Wings of Horus and paperwarbirds.com. They have the Fokker triplane series. Sorry about the addresses for some reason I can't copy them from the book to the site.

[ml5716111]

ML Paper Models at: http://www.papermodels.co.il
Downloads, CD's and printed 1/32 aircraft kits by Dr. Emil Zarkov, ModelArt.

[Texman]

Here is the url for Kancho

http://www.kancho.muncho.org

Ray

[Texman]

Also,

www.papertigerarmaments.com

Ray

[jrts]

Hi Leif

Very good idea

Here is my chip in

www.gremirmodels.com
www.thaipaperwork.com
www.e-papermodels.com
www.teuton.org/dbarnett
www.hobbyfactory.com
www.paperwarbirds.com
www.lighthousemodelart.com

Except for e-Bay these are the site I use to buy all my models from, each and everyone offers a fantastic service.

The only other one I use but is not in the above list (don't do downloads) is
www.cardmodelshop.com

I could not leave this out as they give a great service as the others do

Again Leif dam good idea

Thanks

Rob

[Leif Oh]

Alright, not bad for an evening occupying the dial-up connection. Thanks everybody! - And now for the corrections and more detailed info of lines carried, CD vs. downloads, etc., from manufacurers and customers alike. This is looking good! - Leif

[billmcc]

Here is the URL for Wilhelmshaven downloadable e-models:

http://www.papermod.de/

[nx13688]

Daisey Designs High-Performance Card Models
http://www.daisey-designs.com
Electronic download only.
1/18 scale Indy cars, classic racing aircraft

[Leif Oh]

I think it would be useful if designers, manufacturers, and vendors specified if models on CDs work also on a Mac, or on Window machines only.

Anybody with experiences of this, please contribute them here.

An example I looked up today is Gremir models. On that site Michael says that his CDs require Windows 95 or later, which I take as not working on a Mac. Notifying customers about that is commendable; perhaps it should be spelled out even more clearly, i.e. "not working on Macs".

Leif

PS. Michael has just confirmed that his CDs are Windows only. I miss not being able to buy the Swedish J-22, but better to know it beforehand.

[wunwinglow]

Can you not emulate Windows on a Mac? Failing that, what sort of format would be best to be either cross platform (pdf?) or alternate (Illustrator?)

Tim P

[Leif Oh]

Tim,

Not many would have the program needed to emulate Windows (I'm running an old system, perhaps there is an option in Mac OSX and later, I don't know).

The universal format of course is pdf. Anybody can read that, for free, since the reader comes with the system, and is downloadable for free if you wish to update.

Further, Mac owners with Photoshop or Illustrator can read those files, even if made on a Windows platform - if they have the programs, of course (not a given...).

I have them, and I regularly import pdfs into Photoshop for scaling, recolouring and rearranging parts. No problem.

So a high-resolution pdf would be the most universal format, I should think. And I stress high-resolution; cannot emphasize that point enough. I'm willing to take any time required to download a pdf if it is high-resolution, even on a dial-up connection. That is a requirement for being able to scale the models. If not, I'm better off buying a hard copy, and scan & scale it myself.

Having said that, if there's a complement of Photoshop or Illustrator formats offered beside the main pdf-option, I would of course go for them directly, on account of quality. But far from all would have that option.

Cheers, Leif

[wunwinglow]

Thanks Leif,

I asked because you might remember, I think this was pre current website times, we started to discuss forming an electronic card model format standard, and I wondered if we could revisit this idea. I found, for example, that some pdf files always want to print at 97% size, and unless I force my printer to print at 100% (ie turn off fit to page) I get small models!

I'll start another thread....

Tim P