VERY nice! I think this is one of my favorite kits. As you discovered, it makes everything look very ELEGANT.
Unfortunately, I've had problems with some of these kits from Berea and ALL that I ordered from Woodcraft (which doesn't make much sense to me) and would be curious to hear whether you or anyone else has been seeing the same thing. The replacement parts that I received from Berea were not much better than the parts that I reported. Woodcraft decided to just refund my money on the last 10 that I ordered as they said the one's they have in stock are likely to have the same problem.
The shiny chrome parts of the nib and finial are fine, but the matted chrome finish appears to have areas where the underlying metal shows through - it looks sort of brownish-gold. (This is sort of like the problem with the brass tubes that you described - YOU made the pen and so YOU see it, whereas someone else might see it as a more realistic underwater look if they don't know about HOW the pen is made.) You may not have noticed THIS problem, but once you do, it becomes readily apparent how badly these are plated (OR, I am just seeing things!!)
I first noticed this problem with the matte finish on a particulary bad example of this kit - it looked like the pen had been dipped and some parts got less plating than others, but now I can see it on many or most of these kits. (It is much less of a problem on the OTHER kit that has the shiny and matte finishes reversed, but I don't prefer that one.)
Even on the very best examples from either Woodcraft or Berea, you may see what I mean if you put the tip of the pen on your finger and rotate the pen around while looking at the matte finish of the nib - you may notice vertical lines that extend from the decorative band right down to the shiny chrome at the nib - some pens have a handful of these lines, others have just one or two. If you are unlucky enough to see this, you will then see more of this same problem on the finial and other places on the nib (without trying). Sometimes, its lines, other times its more iregular shapes where the finish is not silver/grey, but instead goldish-brown.
I hate having to open and look through many bags to decide which is the least bad kit to use!
:frown: Jason