I've made some satisfying progress in the last couple of days. Best of all, I have found my "zen", or my "happy place" in all of this. My shock and dismay over the lack of "completeness" of the inletting, most of the metal parts, and all of that is now behind me. And I'm having fun "learning as I go". Big thanks to John for his tip on using lipstick as a spotting agent to help fit the parts.
I've gotten the ramrod entry thimble on the front of the forearm, along with the nose cap fitted. I put about ten hours total into getting these parts to fit, but it was an enjoyable learning experience. The "before and after" pics of the forearm where they fit are pretty telling, and indicative of where I have to start in getting anything to fit.
Here is how it came from the Hawken Shop:
Here is how it wound up before these parts fit:
Parts installed. All of this work was done by hand, with wood chisels and sandpaper.:
Here is the lock installed into the stock. I do have to say, the Dremel Moto tool is one hell of a boon to frontier gunsmithing
I made good use of one on all of the inner radii that had to be cleared to fit:
