They have a V2 casting that I provided to them. For the V2 I corrected the top shape from the V1, the V1 was too flat and did not have enough "curvature" both front to back and side to side. The V2 also has the corrected rear louvers, the V1's were too wide. The V2 isclose as far as the accuracy goes, there are some differences of course, some small like some of the panel lines being moved a little, those were tells because at the time i made the pattern almost everything i was doing was being recast.
The bottom and intakes have the biggest difference from the studio model. The bottom was largely left over from the CR offering. From what i can gather and what I have seen is that on the studio model the height of the intake side walls was very inconsistent., taller in some places and shorter in others. Part of that was due to the fact that the "floor" seemed to be flat in some spots and curved in others. To make the bottom intakes consistent thru the length of the body, it looks like the high spot of the side walls was taken, and built symmetrical from there. That changed the overall height of the bottom, changed some of the angles a bit, and even moved the exhaust ports a bit. It's one of those things that once you head down the road of changing something for the sake of symmetry, you just kind of have to deal with where those changes take you. Same thing happened when I did the 15 1/2 inch viper, once i straightened out the engines and leveled them out (they kind of pointed inwards a bit and were not totally level with each other), they led to all types of changes, the backplate got a little bigger so the grebblies did not fit the same way, the bottom tray got a little bigger etc....all the way thru to the nose.
I did not change the bottom much because I did not think i would come up with a better solution at the time.
Of course the V2 was still built by hand so there are some other symmetry issues, but I am sure that those will be addressed. They are using it as a starting point, not as a pattern.
I'm sure that they will do a great job, and i can't wait to get my hands on a few...
mike