Go to
www.logcabinshop.com and take a look at what they have to offer. The pistols are surprisingly cheap and Lyman is very good quality.
As far as I know there are no revolver kits, there just isn't any work on actually building a revolver that most folks can do at home besides maybe making their own grip.
So you'll have to build either a percussion or flintlock pistol.
I built a Lyman Great Plains Rifle from a kit. None of the work is overly difficult, it really just takes time and patience. The lock is already case hardened,colored and fitted so your left with finishing the trim peices, barrel, and stock.
The trim peices like the trigger gaurd and the wedge that holds the barrel in place are usually cast and have sort of rough finish. I sanded mine all down to 320 grit and then burned them blue with a heat shrink torch. For the smaller peices its easiest to get an even color by heating a block of scrap steel up red hot and then laying the peice you want on top until it turns the color you want.
The barrel can be cold blued or rust browned. I went with the browning, and am pretty happy with the results. You just have to get the metal good and clean and then paint on an etchant and let it sit in a humid area. I hung mine by the breech hook in a peice of pipe stood upright over a can of water with a space heater blowing on it and a peice of cloth over the top. Let it hang for about 12 hours. About 10 applications of chemical and light wire brushing in between gave a pretty dark finish, it almost looks blued from a distance.
For the stock, you mainly have sanding that needs done becuase it has been milled out to about 95% of its final shape. A small chisel or set of X acto knives might be nice in case some of the trim peices aren't inletted enough. And you might need a rasp to take a little more material off the stock in spots. On my rifle, the buttstock was much too wide for the plate so I had quite a bit of carving to do to get it to look how I wanted. I doubt there would be much work like that on a pistol.
I sanded the wood down to 220 grit with wet dry sandpaper and then finished it with Watco's danish oil. I didn't stain it and its a nice medium brown color, light enough that the grain really shows, but still a nice walnut color. For the oil finish, I would put on a heavy coat (the first one should take a lot as the wood will keep soaking up more and more) and let it sit till it was completely dry. Then I sanded with 400 grit wet dry paper lightly, and put on another coat. Repeated that process 6 times and then put on a final coat and rubbed it out with a rag really well when it was dry. Its got a great sheen, but the shine is in the wood, its not an ugly plastic coating. That sounds like a lot of work but finishing the stock really only takes 15 or 20 minutes every other day or so as you get time.
Don't let this scare you off its a lot of fun, and really isn't difficult to do. If you have any questions while your building one post them here and I'm sure someone will help you out. I had to ask quite a few stupid questions before my rifle was done
Its alot of fun and shooting is even better when you built it yourself.
