To both of the Chris's, I agree, the Emporer, Imperial and now Lotus are a lot of Bling and I'd never carry that much flash around on me. This is purely a pen to make a statement sitting on some executives desk. Having said that, there's still nothing like holding one you just completed in your hand, looking down at it and going "wow, I did that".
Someone has to have said "There's an owner for every pen". Now I just need to get my website finished and start finding some owners for this and my selection of Barons.
Dario - Darker is always an option, its just a matter of finding the right blank. As we've all said, it's a busy kit. We usually try to highlight the wood used, but staring at this thing, you find it's so busy that you have to balance business in both wood and kit to elevate them both. It was really tough to pick the blank for this first one. But my mood and my eye may lead me down a different path with the next, whenever that may be.
EPC - Got the kit from CraftSupplies USA. It's one of their new Lotus style. The kits aren't cheap by any means. But like the Emporer and the other CSUSA kits, it's a solid well designed/built kit.