It seems like the 3ds file is very small, or more to the point the importer is seeing it very small. I know absolutely nothing about how 3ds files are put together. But I see now that even with the import units set to Kilometers it isn't very big. I suspect it is simply that the tail is too small for the faces to form correctly in SU. Sketchup has problems forming very small faces, they can exist once formed but many times you need to scale things up to create them then down again. Perhaps if you scale the 3ds file up before you try to import it.