Here she is: Williams Brothers classic 1/72 Boeing 247D airliner, modified to the original 247 (no 'D') configuration.
That conversion included modifying the kit's 'straight-line' fin/rudder to the earlier 'notched' style, and detailing the hinges; cutting off the kit engine nacelles and scratchbuilding new smaller-diameter ones (from Monogram 1/48 F4U-4 drop tanks); and using the engines and speed-ring cowlings from an Airfix 1/72 Ford Trimotor to replace the kit's late-style NACA-design fully-enclosed engine cowlings. (Both real aircraft utilized the same Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp engines, so it was an easy swap...just requiring new scratchbuilt exhaust collectors.)
The kit includes the early-style 'forward slant' canopy as an option; though I had to cut out the centerline pilot's hatch and replace it with an acetate piece, since the kit canopy is a two-piece affair with the seam running right down the center. I added the early-style tall aerial mast forward of the canopy from a shaped section of bamboo barbecue skewer, to give it enough strength and rigidity to stand up to the tightly-stretched EZ-Line aerial.
Decals were all made up on my PC and printed on my faithful HP inkjet, using Testors decal paper and their Decal-Bonder spray to seal. The decals included something I tried for the first time: 'printed' panel lines. Uncertain of how visible my usual 'pencil' technique would be against assorted shades of silver, I made up a bunch of straight and curved lines in various thicknesses and colors, to apply as decals.
I used the charcoal-grey versions exclusively---the black were much too high-contrast---and it worked fairly well, particularly on the 247's complex curved nose panels. There were two main drawbacks: homemade decals tend to want to curl, and with tiny strips of panel lines this became an exercise in patience in some areas. The other drawback comes from putting mainly clear-film decals over a silver finish: even with a Future undercoat and liberal use of Solvaset, there were some 'silvering' areas that remained invisible until the final finish-coat was applied. Most could be dealt with, but a few rough areas frustratingly remained.
The aircraft I chose to depict---NC13304---was the fourth production machine of the total 75 built, and is the same one shown in the overhead photo already posted above. It went into service in April 1933; the World's Fair photo was taken during the summer only a few months later.
Here's the same aircraft as it might have looked on the evening 0f 10 October, 1933: United Airlines' regularly-scheduled 'Trip 23'---they didn't yet refer to them as 'Flights'---preparing to depart following a twenty-minute refueling stop at Ohio's Cleveland Hopkins Airport, on the next leg of her trans-continental route from Newark, New Jersey to Oakland, California. Now headed for Chicago, the ill-fated airliner was about to enter the annals of aviation history...but for all the wrong reasons.
At approximately 8:49 PM, the pilot radioed his regular position report, with all normal and the aircraft on-course for the Windy City. When the next scheduled communication---twenty minutes later---wasn't made, it raised no particular alarm, since radio communication was still highly subject to weather and/or occasional technical difficulties. Alarms were raised a short time later, as confused reports started to come in from ground witnesses: an explosion had been heard in the night skies over the rural farm area near Chesterton, Indiana. A short time later, wreckage was found: the aircraft had been torn apart in mid-air---by what authorities later determined was most likely a nitroglycerin bomb planted in a lavatory storage cabinet---with the loss of all aboard: four passengers (the aircraft could have carried as many as ten) and three crew, including pilot, co-pilot and stewardess.
This first-ever bombing of a commercial passenger aircraft---an act of what we would now call 'terrorism,' though then it was merely referred to as 'sabotage'---was extensively investigated by the FBI and civil aviation authorities. Despite pursuing numerous seemingly-promising leads and an ever-widening list of possible suspects who had any potential connection with the airline, the flight, or its passengers or crew, no credible motive for the act was ever determined...no probable suspect(s) firmly identified...and no credit claimed by any individual or organization, for having brought the airliner down. The puzzle of the ill-fated United Air Lines 'Trip 23' remains the oldest 'cold case' in commercial aviation---and one of the most frustrating and elusive 'unsolved' cases in the entire history of aviation.