She's pretty well finished and I am grateful she turned out well. The stock from the kit showed some interesting tiger striping potential but was very asymmetrical in its architecture and the lock panels were not at all mirror images of each other, so it took a good deal of wood shaping to get things more or less where they should be. Goody - more practice in preparation for the 'serious builds' in the future!
I used Varathane American Walnut stain and Lin-Speed for the wood finish. It was my first time using Lin-Speed and I loved it. It took a bit longer to do than other kinds of finishes I have used but it is a true rubbed-oil finish and I like the look. For the metal finish I used Birchwood Casey Superblue and then removed most of it with 0000 steel wool.
I may checker the grip at some time in the future but am not ready to invest a lot of money in checkering tools right now - that money needs to be spent visiting my ailing paw back East.
Now it's time to send some lead downrange!