hi jason

might be able to give you some help on the chequred cowl, the original was painted white first, then they used thin metal square stencils to do the black, ok this is fine on a large object but not at our scale.

i don't know what scale your 47 is, mine was the yellow aircraft, 80" version. the cowl is a very nice fibre glass moulding.

like the original i painted first the white and allowed to dry. next i drew my horizonal lines using a marking gauge with a pencil glued to the scriber, laying the leading edge of the cowl down onto a flat surface, check the number of squares, as i've found photo's differ, also some have a black square at the very top others have a white! take your pick!

next the cowl has to be fixed to a block so that the other opposite (vertical) lines can be drawn, using the same method.
what i found was, it's very differcult to do the leading edge areas, you might find using thin Tamiya masking tape helps to fit the contours.

each square then has to be masked and painted with black, this can take a few evenings, don't rush it. 6mm Tamiya masking tape is great for this.

i have somewhere at home an e-mail from Gordon Whitehead, also writes for RCSI all on how to do chequered cowls, he wrote it some years ago, i'll try and find it and send it to you.

cheers

dave