[twobjshelbys]

Kits of all kinds are based on the premise that your labor is free. I built a couple of Heathkit color TV sets way back when. Even if I took my labor from unpacking to sitting in front of the TV watching it (it had fabulous color becuase I dialed it in myself) at a rate of the 1970's minimum wage, I would still have been money ahead if I'd just gone to the local place and bought a TV set. You need to carefully weigh the expense of hiring someone to finish the kit who is certainly going to charge you an hourly labor rate far more than minimum wage. If he doesn't then he's not doing the work and is having some high school kid do it instead and the quality, even if he is supervising, will show it. You will be paying a premium price for a commodity build. It's the same logic that says those $100,000 frame off restorations of classic cars are always better bought finished than doing it yourself. You are highly likely to be money ahead in abandoning the kit and buying someone else's kit already finished (or stepping up to a higher grade product for the difference).

(I know that the experienced folks were already thinking this but I know what a horse looks like when I see one.)