I don't know Skyler, but I've talked to him a few times. I contemplated having him do a D&T job on one of my revolvers which I don't seem to have time to do myself... Haven't yet done so. I might use him in the future, but I'm anxious to see how he does for your project if you do go forward with him.
I tend to do all of my own revolversmithing, so I'm probably not much help, but I have had bits and pieces of custom work done in the past, and have bought multiple revolvers which had been customized by some of the big name folks... Gemini, Clements, Bowen, Reeder, Harton, etc...
How much have you researched pricing for proper action work and/or finish work? You mentioned you think engraving is out of your price range, but after reading that statement, I want to warn you about the cost of proper revolversmiths. Any time you say, "custom revolver," you're talking steep costs. A simple action job on a GP100 can run $500-750 or more with these big name smiths, and you might find yourself on a 2yr wait list. The work is well worth it, but comparatively, you could get relatively simple engraving done by someone like Jim Downing can be as low as a few hundred bucks. I've never commissioned work from him, but Richard Kramer out of Hutchinson does VERY nice engraving work also. Mind you, I'm not talking about full custom cylinder/barrel builds, which can cost $1500-5000, or more - I'm just talking about getting standard action jobs done for $500-1000.
You can save a lot of money by going to a jack of all firearms gunsmith, instead of a proper revolversmith, but you can also often get burned. Many gunsmiths don't even take work on revolvers. I've not seen any work Skyler/Hatari has done on revolvers, so I'll be interested to see your results if you do use him.
I'm a bit of a revolver nut, so like I said, I'm prone to do my own action jobs. I've done my own bead blasting in the past, but I shop that out these days. Unless I'm doing milling or lathe machining work, I don't pay someone else to do it. A couple dozen hours with polishing compound and elbow grease, a sear jig and stones, some wolff springs and Lance's shims, I can do an action job which meets or beats any local GUNsmith I've ever used, and is within what I'd call 80% of what I've paid for custom REVOLVERsmiths... But for FREE instead of $1000...
Where are you located, yourself? Local to Salina? I grew up around Lindsborg, but live in Wichita now. If you settle in for a Ruger and decide to do your own action job on it, I might be able to help you out.