A few years ago I built a St. Louis Hawken kit. I didn't go the traditional route with a browned barrel and dark stained stock. I went blued/blonde. The most time consuming part of the build was finishing the stock. It comes pretty rough. I had to do a LOT of sanding. Also, they leave plenty of wood to remove where the percussion mechanism sits. I had to break out the dremel. Went slow, and the end result came out great.
Oh, and I replaced the crappy factory sights with Williams Firesights. I wanted something I could actually hunt with.