Don,

It looks great with the smaller cowl. I would make the corners just as smooth and round and gentle as possible (think Rare Bear). It might still be a losing battle with the frontal area, but at least you're putting up a valiant fight. Perhaps in this case a larger spinner wouldn't be so bad (think Rare Bear). The goal would be to make the front end as spherical as possible, with the air diverted around the sides instead of whamming into the front.

Propeller design may play a role. It's no secret that some props work better on some designs than on others. The old Denight Special F1 model was known as a dog because of its large, bulbous cheeks, until a few unusually smart Denight owners started making props with a little more diameter, more pitch and blade area out at the tip, and a lot less in near the hub. Since the air near the fuselage was going to hit those cheeks and stall anyway, there was no point wasting the energy to accelerate it.

On the Smoothie, if you want to make the nose extremely short, you may have to cut a notch out of the front of the wing to accommodate the tank. That means make sure you have a good spar. Or, if Ed Smith is to be believed (never a foregone conclusion), a Jett or Tettra tank on the bottom of the fuselage could work out just fine.

I wouldn't worry too much about nose-overs. If you get the landing gear position right, it won't bounce that much. Or, use an APC prop and have it stop straight up and down, so you can use it as a skid.

Vincent da Chinscoop