Mike,
How did your nose cone turn out/coming along?
You can see my first attempt at a nose cone that I did about 2 years ago. It's a little large and not very elegant. Partly that is because of the tall BMW engine it's hiding and partly because I didn't optimize the buck.
I used an English wheeling machine to shape the four panels and then hammer-formed the front opening over the buck shaped from MDF.
An unpainted nose cone is like a metal shaping final exam. All flaws are exposed. Word is that the some of old Italian cars that had handmade, aluminum-bodies had a lot of filler for smoothing under the paint. But, I have also seen some photos of bare Lotus 6s and 7s that looked very smooth. That takes lot of planishing effort.