Here's another update for those who asked. I've done some fiddling, made a few static aircraft models and learned a few things.
As mentioned above, Static Model Maker won't process a CFS-2 model. The attempt just produces an immediate error message, "Not An FS8 or FS9 Model."
Missing parts can be remedied. According to the instructions, the program is coded to utilize only the important animations as they are set up in stock FS9 aircraft. If a model shows up with parts missing, that supposedly means that the modeler set up some animations in a non-standard way. There must be a bit more to it than that, because so far, the only plane I've had show up with missing parts was a stock FS9 aircraft; the Ford Trimotor showed with its elevators and rudder missing.
The fix is easy. Junk the failed model and start over. For the Animations Included selection, instead of the default "Auto" button, check "All." (Or of you're up for some trial and error, check "Custom" and do some trial and error testing.) I just checked "All" and the Ford appeared with all its parts intact.
I also found that some static models will lock up FS, requiring that he program be closed with the Task Manager. This happens as soon as the offending static model comes into view on the monitor. The instructions mention that this will happen with some aircraft, and that no harm is done other than the need to close and restart FS. What the instructions fail to mention is that if you don't delete the offending static model, the same thing will keep happening until you do.
This glitch means that you should test each static model in the sim immediately upon creating and placing it. If you make a bunch of models for a scenery location and then check them out in the sim all at once, and one (or more) of them freezes up the sim, you'll have a lot of tedious trial and error to figure out which one(s) caused the problem.
I also found that making a library and using Object Manager to create and place static models didn't work out. There isn't a way to make thumbnails for the library (at least I couldn't figure out how to do it), and selecting a particular aircraft by its file name didn't work out at all - I would select a certain plane from the list, and find that Object Manager had created the static model from a completely different aircraft, apparently chosen at random.
Fortunately, there's no need to make libraries or to use Object Manager (or EZ Scenery or anything else) to make and place static models, because the functionality built into Static Model Maker is simple and precise. I should've just gone with that to begin with.
So that's what I've learned about Static Model Maker. I seem to have the hang of it now, and while it's not perfect, it's very good indeed and I'm happy with the results I've achieved so far.