Soldering is a relatively quick and painless skill to acquire, particularly if you have a Radio Shack handy. In fact, I think they still carry the 5-lug terminal strips that are very much like the one used in Bottlehead kits; mount a few of those to a scrap of wood, get a couple of packs of cheap resistors you don't care about, and you can get a lot of soldering practice in for a few bucks.