RE: Cowls that open for access???
i also have my first cowled plane. what i do is cut a hole for everything i need to get to, i.e. the needle valves and the carb. ive never needed to remove the cowl except when i landed with the engine hanging on one screw. good thing i didnt decide to do another lap or else i would have lost it. it funyy because the engine was vibrating so bad that it cut off right when the plane came to a stop on the runway. well back to the subject, if you cant cut the holes in such a way to be able to get to the parts or you want to keep a scale appearance, use the cut in half method mentioned before. hope this helps