Hi Bob,
Probably the quickest way to accomplish this, without extensive use of plugins, is to control your camera location/movement through scenes. This precludes the need to manipulate the model in any way.
For example, you could draw a hexagon that encloses your entire model, with one vertex lined up with the front view. Then you could place your camera on the front vertical of the hexagon. Use guide points to try different elevations until you get one that frames your model correctly. Now adjust the height of the hexagon to match the perfect height.
Re-place your camera on the front vertex, making sure that you are in the front view, and save the scene. Now place your camera on the next vertex and repeat the process and save a scene. (you can control your camera even more if you make an alignment face for each vertex that is perpendicular to the plane of the camera view at the vertex and use that to align the camera after you place it on the vertex. This might be more control than you actually need and "fudging" the camera location to better frame the model in each location is a valid method too.
Once you have all the vertex views saved as scenes, run the animation. You may need to zoom in or out slightly, at each scene, to keep from clipping the model as the camera moves. Keep refreshing the scenes as you dial in the flow.
It sounds more complicated than it is and you will find that you can "fake" an object-based animation pretty easily.
