The Internet Craftsmanship Museum Presents:

Ken Foran displays his latest project, the Bell helicopter he made by special request for Fine Art Models to use as a master pattern for a limited edition run. Ken's usual subject matter is aircraft from World War I. (Click on photo to view larger image.)

Ken Foran was born in Marathon, Ontario, Canada and immigrated to the United States in 1965 and enlisted in the Marine Corps for the GI Bill to attend college. Upon completing his three-year enlistment 1965-1968 with a 13-month tour in Vietnam he attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, and graduated with a B.F.A –Industrial Design. Ken has spent his entire working career in Product Development with he and his development teams being awarded numerous patents and design awards both domestically and internationally. As part of the development process product models would be developed for review by various other disciplines. Ken had under his responsibility the product development model shop that utilized state-of-the-art prototype technology from 3D CAD, CNC machining to sterolithography; as well as hand fabrication.

Ken’s first exposure to model building was watching his grandfather hand carve ship models while he was a child. His grandfather immigrated to Canada at the age of 16 from Denmark and was a Canadian Merchant Marine for many years that was “volunteered” into the Canadian Navy at the outbreak of WWII. He served on a Canadian Corvette, as a Chief Mate in the North Atlantic convoys to Murmansk, Russia. Ken as young boy would watch with fascination while his grandfather would carve tiny ship models that he would then erect inside bottles. Ken still has one his grandfather gave him. He also scratch built large clipper ships, some ended up in local museums upon his death.

The first model Ken built was a plastic Viking ship given to him as a Christmas present by his grandfather when he was 10. His grandfather told him to always remember his “Viking“ heritage. Perhaps this wanderlust and genes lead to Ken’s joining the Marine Corps.

Throughout his youth he built various plastic and wood models from airplanes, cars, ships to knights in armor. Early on Ken would always go beyond the normal kit doing what has now been coined as “kitbashing”. Ken had to take a hiatus from model building while in the Marine Corps; and once in college his building skills really developed building prototype models of products he designed. In college, not only did we have to design the product, we had to do the preliminary engineering drawings and then build the prototype models using whatever techniques worked the best. While in college Ken was also selected to be one of the four-man team of the 1970 Clean Air Car Team from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Ken was the only underclassman on the team and was selected because of his model building skills that were then used to fabricate a fully functional prototype car in six months that was then tested at the GM proving grounds in Milford, Michigan. The car was awarded the Best Design Award. Ken’s background and education in the Marines are what really came into play in building the car; for Ken was trained as a Helicopter Structural Mechanic and just transferred his skills from helicopters to a car build.

While his working career was very demanding of time and he also traveled extensively around the world; he managed to work with both of his children Eric and Heather on various school projects that required building. His son Eric figured out very early on that he preferred flying RC planes than building them. Ken was a better builder than a flyer so they made a great team.

Ken was always interested in how things were built rather than how they looked finished. To this end Ken started scratch building models after years of assembling kits and being somewhat disappointed in their quality and depth of details. His first early attempts were WW I aircraft, he wished to build certain aircraft that were not available in kits. Having built a few of the Guillow’s kits commercially available he realized that the 1/16^th scale was a good size for both detailing and display. With modelers, and being married storage and display is always an issue. For some reason wives do not see the real decorative value of models around the house.

Over the years Ken has accumulated an extensive collection of hand tools, tabletop lathe, drill press and milling machine; mostly found at liquidation sales of one form or another. Ken admits to not being a machinist and is self-taught on the equipment. Having the right tool for the job is the key to great model making. A lesson taught him by his father was” Sometimes the biggest mistake you can make is to buy cheap tools.”  He has also taught himself how to use computers over the years; while he admits that he as a corporate executive; paid for the training of designers and engineers on 3D CAD programs, he himself was never in the position to learn the programs himself.

Ken Foran (Right) explains some of the details of his Fokker Eindecker E-IV to a spectator at the 2008 North American Model Engineering Society show in Toledo. In the foreground is his 1/16 scale Fokker D-VII. Since he was just a couple hours drive away, Ken was kind enough to bring over two of his models to display at the Joe Martin Foundation's booth at the show where the models were greatly appreciated by the many craftsmen who attend. (Click on photo to view larger image.)

Ken has had a life long interest in airplanes and especially the WWI era planes and attends all the Dawn Patrol fly-ins at the Wright–Patterson AFB held bi-annually. As mentioned earlier he was disappointed with the level of detail on commercially available kits. So rather than complain about that he decided to take matters into his own hands and started scratch building his own. His first attempt was the Fokker Tri-plane. Ken does all his own research and scours the world on the Internet looking for resources, reference material and images of the planes to build. He states that he is real careful about using the drawings of others because he has found errors or outright mistakes in some drawings. He notes, "Whenever possible I try to obtain original drawings or pictures from the period; and yes there are sources out there to obtain them."

Ken had built the tri-plane, which he says was his first attempt and learning experience. Then his second project was the Fokker D VII; this he selected because of the engine and wished to push and develop his brass working skills. Ken again taught himself how to solder and work with and fabricate brass. He feels that brass is by far the fastest and easiest medium to work and construct in. “Many times I can build component parts while they are still hot from soldering; not having to wait for glue to set.”  Besides just about any shape, size, profile configuration or sheet thickness is available and all can be soldered to each other. The Fokker engine did in fact challenge his building skills; he hand fabricated, shaped the upper and lower crankcases with files. He says he had to work very slowly and carefully for there was no chance of using filler if a mistake was made.

As with all of Ken’s planes they are built as close as humanly possible to the real thing. All controls surfaces work as they should form the joystick and rudder bar. In the case of some they even have working suspensions. Gretchen, his wife actually helps him by hammering the cowls using .020" dead soft aluminum. Gretchen is also a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art in Silversmithing and taught there for ten years. Ken says it is amazing to watch her take a small circle of flat aluminum and with nothing more than hammers and stakes; hammer cowls not only round but also to a press fit tolerance.

Ken posted images of his two Fokkers on a popular WWI website; and almost immediately was receiving accolades from around the world, which totally amazed him. He would receive requests on how to do this and that; he says he even has emailed a renowned modeler step by step through the silver soldering process. Ken says that the modeling community is a great group of people and that he enjoys sharing knowledge and building tips with others. Ken had started his next project a Fokker Eiendecker E-IV, to round out the Fokker series and an obscure model with a double bank rotary engine when he learned that someone had sent a link of his work to Gary Kohs, of Fine Art Models. Ken and Gary emailed back and forth, with Gary wondering if the Fokker Triplane was in fact not one of Gary’s models.  Ken was not aware of Fine Art Models at the time and after a few emails Gary invited Ken to visit with him in Detroit so that Gary could see the planes and Ken’s work in person. Ken had also brought the E-IV, which only had the engine, fuselage and tailplane complete.

Ken's 1/15th scale Sopwith Camel includes a second engine on a stand. (Click on photo to view a larger image.)

Within 5 minutes of looking at the models Gary invited Ken to attend the Nuremberg Toy Fair and to build a Sopwith Camel for Fine Art Models. Upon the completion of the Sopwith Camel in 1/15^th scale and exceeding Gary’s expectation with the build Gary then offered a challenge.

Ken's all brass M.A.S.H. Bell helicopter built for Fine Art Models. (Click on photo to view larger image.)

He told Ken that he always wanted to build a certain model, but in the previous 13 years he had not been able to find a builder to do it. Much to Ken’s surprise it was a Bell H-13D Sioux M.A.S.H. helicopter. Of course with Ken’s background as a helicopter mechanic in the Marines this was right up his alley. Ken accepted the challenge; located a H-13D being restored in Canada, visited with them for two days shooting 10 rolls of film and numerous sketches with dimensions. He later located an engine rebuilder in Detroit that was rebuilding a Franklin engine; again a visit with rolls of film being taken. Ken also located and purchased original parts catalogs and erection manuals with more details and dimensions. Ken says that “God is in the details” and that he tries to be as accurate as possible when he builds and that the better the information the more accurate the model.

The challenge was that most of the components had to be fabricated out of brass. The model is not only a prototype but will also be used to make master patterns and molds for casting in brass. Thus the model will have to be able to be disassembled and reassembled. To add features Ken also enabled the main rotor to turn the tail rotor and turn the cooling fan for the engine. Note the 1/8” diameter working universal joint. Ken indicates that the greatest challenge was that there was little margin for error because everything is seen and the wide variety of component configurations and changes that evolved over the years with model changes and upgrades. 

Fine Art Models have exhibited the H-13D model at the London Model Engineering Show and the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany in 2006.  Presently, Ken is currently constructing a Stearman N2S for Fine Art Models and is in the early phases of building.

Ken has provided a number of links where photos of his projects can be seen in great detail while they were being built. After you look through the photos we have provided in the section below, visit any of these links to see more:

Sopwith Camel build: http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Foran/Camel/index.html

Fokker D VII build: http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Foran/D-VII/index.html

Fokker DR I Triplane build: http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Foran/Dr-I/index.html    

Fokker E IV build: http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Foran/E-IV/index.html  

Bell H 13D helicopter build: http://cellmath.med.utoronto.ca/B47/walkarounds/FORAN_WalkFlsh_625/index.html  

Stearman build (4 photos): http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/non-wwi-aviation/27024-n2s-stearman-engine-build.html

Stearman build (4 photos): http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/non-wwi-aviation/25355-brass-n2s-5-stearman-update.html

Stearman build (4 photos): http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/non-wwi-aviation/25138-stearman-n2s.html

Here are several examples of Ken Foran's work:

(Click photos for larger images.)

New Submissions Welcomed

If you have additional information on a project or builder shown on this site that your would like to contribute, please e-mail craig@CraftsmanshipMuseum.com. We also welcome new contributions. Please see our page at www.CraftsmanshipMuseum.com/newsubmit.htm for a submission form and guidelines for submitting descriptive copy and photos for a new project.

This section is sponsored by:

FINE ART MODELS
P.O. Box 225, Birmingham, MI  48012 USA

Phone:  (248) 288-5155
Fax:  (248) 288-4412

www.FineArtModels.com

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