Well ..... Hi Earl!! Happy Holidays to ya!!
It would seem, .. Yes .. Yes .. Yes .. Yes .. Hope that isn't too many Yesses. I actually had to go back to the original sample example article as provided by/too/for GOTOW. That was the article and Photo Set that started ALL the excitement. At the time of the article, I rather doubted the gun would arrive as Stainless. Thought it would be the same polished/heat treated Pietta used on their Marshal pistols. It was/is. Not stainless, Polished and heat treated simple steel.
I noticed the barrel length of the guns I received at 4 inches with a little short stubby round part of the loader. Having built some (several) Snubbies on Navy pattern guns, it is considerable less expensive to cut/bore/install the latch and spring into that short stub rather than trying to fit it into boss at the knee.
Also, the latch retainer on the original Sample Example was cut in half and then soldered to the barrel. The latch retainer on the reproduction in the article was the standard Pietta part, which means Pietta had to make a custom Loading Lever machined to be very short. Not cheap.
SO ..... Hunpff ..... the BOTTOM LINE. Yes there were some changes from concept to production. The guns had to built to a "price point" and some of the really good intentions drove that price past the target ceiling. We still get a really striking reproduction of a "One Off" Colt from the 1840/50 time period. Normally a gun of this nature is only available from custom gun builders ..... Like ME. I'd only have taken commission to build one or maybe two beyond my own pair, when I was still practicing the Gunsmithing Dark Arts. An awful lot of work to make "that" gun. I have built a few "similar" and they weren't cheap. No way I'd attempt to build the 500 or so Pietta are building. And ...... I really like mine even if the barrel is a 1/2 inch too long. NO!! I'm not going to cut it. I like it just fine as is.
Coffinmaker