I agree with the others, the poured cap is good. I added an entry pipe and a pured cap to a TC and it looks much better. The factory one is ugly and not historically common. While you are at it make or buy new pipes. Let them into the rib so the rod lies flat. TC reall dropped the ball there, I think it looks really amatuerish.
If you make those changes you might's well press on. Inlet the key escuchions properly. Fix the lock pannel mouldings. Add a proper lock screw escuchion or even a whole plate. Fix the cheekpiece. Add a toeplate. Fix up the trigger guard by remove the superfluious doo-dads.
I hate the looks of the sights. Unfortunately the drop is insufficient for good looking lower sights.
There is a decent looking rifle hiding in there, you just need to know where to look. The TC Hawken is a good fuinctional gun. It just has a mass produced modern look. You can't do much harm by altering it.
Oh, I used LINOTYPE lead alloy for my tip, worked great and did not burn the wood. No need for bismuth alloy or special no tox pewter. You can repair any casting flaws with solder and a soldering iron. I used rosin core solder.
