Bruce, actually the cowl isn't very tapered. Seen from above it's basically a box. However, on the side it does have a bit of a slope along the bottom. What would looks really cool would be a more tapered Spitfire-style cowl which as far as I can see would suit this ARF every bit as well as the boxy one.

Paul, I think I'll just go ahead and fly it without the cowl for a while. Maybe down the road I'll "trick out" the cowl with some piano hinged sections. BTW, thanks for all your advise on my EIII project. It turned out fine but flying it is just a bit beyond my current newbie abilities, although we did get in several successful flights and I even got my own hands of the sticks via a buddy box. Also since I've had to relocated to Japan, I picked up the Spacewalker ARF here to work on my flying skills.

With my interests in WWI A/C, I figure I might as well get used to flying underpowered models with lots of drag!