RE: AC-12 Cab Forward "slope"
Well, seeing as how Charles happens to be my father, and I am staring the engine in the nose, so to speak, then yes, we do have one of these, an AC-11 to be more exact. The search button is your friend, see my review of the AC-12 that arrived in my shop for R&D.
Since you seem to think that my opinion is nothing more than...as you quote, BS... then perhaps you would care to live up to your panhandle and enlighten me on the subject of non-sloped boilers, of which nearly every engine had some sort of slope to the boiler to accommodate for fluctuations in the chassis. I cannot claim great knowledge on the subject of sloped boilers, only I do know that they were most likely put in place on many engines, although unnoticeable to the untrained eye. Looking at the running boards creates an optical illusion that can cause one to think that the boiler is not on the level, and measuring a thin piece of flat metal, sure to develop some sort of bowing and warping, is just as inaccurate. Should you wish to be more of a rivet counter, than perhaps you should measure from the center of the boiler diameter to the base of the rail to get more accurate data.
To reiterate what was said previously, if you are a true stickler for scale, then perhaps you should gut the whole cab and make a scale working backhead. I'll take function over fit any day.
I love the "rivet counting" term that seems to always be applied by folks who for one don't even recognize discrepancies and or just don't give a crap about them. But there is a difference between Aristo-Craft and Accucraft, not to mention the extra '0' in the price.
Where did you get that I was turning this into a manufacturers debate? Last I checked, I do have a working knowledge around steam and the various manufacturers in this hobby, some of which have long disappeared from the scene. I DO recognize the slight discrepancy in our engine, but am I going to do anything about it? Probably not. To call me full of **** when you have obviously not given any solid evidence as to the prototypical accuracy or inaccuracy, is B.S. all by itself.
EDIT:
I got around to taking out my drafting tools, and got my large caliper and builders square out. The boiler itself is Perfectly level, save for a 1/32" tolerance difference in my tools. The problem lies within the running boards, as I stated above. There is a 0.25 ince rise in the running board starting just before the cylinders on the front engine and running to the smokebox.