This is an email I sent to IM, and included the pics I posted above:
To Whom It May Concern:
As a regular customer for your great N freight car products, I eagerly
stepped up for a Tunnel Motor unit, even though the road I model, BN, never
owned any such units. I had watched various forums, and heard of the great
lengths you folks make gone to in order to give modelers a great Tunnel
Motor engine. I had also heard that every detail was going to be as correct
as possible for each individual road. While I am not much of a rivet
counter, (concerning the MSRP) I was expecting a superb-quality unit,
rivaling that of Kato and later Atlas units. I had expected a
smooth-running unit, sharp, clean paint lines, crisp lettering, and
cleanly-applied paint. What a shocker I had received when I got the unit in
the mail!
I took many shots of the unit, detail closeups, and such with my digital
camera. Many folks on the online boards in which I participate have been
anxiously awaiting these units, and the images I had captured. The camera
makes every flaw show up in full-scale. Since it wouldn't be fair to either
of us if I didn't include the images I had captured, they are also attached
to this email.
The paint on the cab side, thickly applied, with areas of thick buildup,
almost to the point of a run shocked me. With your reputation of fine
models, this quite frankly amazed me. The paint separation lines were a bit
fuzzy, but the lettering appeared crisp. It was curious to me that the
'bloody nose' of my Cotton Belt snoot was a bit fuzzy, and the lettering on
top of the red was crisply applied. The handrails were well-executed, and
very finely scaled, but warped. Nothing a bit of warm heat and gentle
tweaking can't fix--something that can happen to any maker's products. No
big deal. The horns were, of all things, cast off-center! The bell looks
nice although a bit out of scale. In N that's hard to get around, while
maintaining the ability to be handled. No biggie there. The photo-etched
windshield wipers were a great touch, but were installed with a bit too much
glue. Same went for the cab side installation of the handrails. The glue
globs were touched-up with paint, but readily show in the images. The
headlights (unexplainably) on both ends of the loco were a bit mangled,
before installation of the clear castings for lenses. The cab side, where
the cab casting will likely mate to the battery boxes has a mottled look,
and possibly glued with way too much adhesive. The rediator intake grills
close to the walkways were applied with a bit too much glue, once again.
The way you comouflaged the lack of a see-though long hood end was ingenius,
and well executed, with the exception of the glue. The radiator and DB fans
were well-done,a nd the see-through grills were a great touch. The MU hoses
being molded into the pilots was a nice touch, but a bit too out of scale,
and flattened. The engine looks great out of the box at arm's length, but
closer inspection reveals that there are some issues with quality control at
your assembly plants. While I would not hesitate to continue buying your
rolling stock products, I would give more consideration for another engine,
especially if QC doesn't improve. At the expensive MSRP or even a deep
discounted price, I could easily have purchased a DCC-equipped engine. I
don't know what decoder is appropriate for equipping this engine for DCC,
but it seems the mechanism is DCC-friendly.
I enjoy your N products, but for me to buy another engine from you, issues
above need to be addressed.
A concerned and disappointed modeler,
Jeremiah Siembida
Perhaps I was too lenient, or too critical. Either way, my opinion is out.