For those of you playing along at home Al and I live about 5 miles from each other, and have been friends for nearly 20 years, so please take no note of our byplay.
Oh and he started it. O:-)

After a few days' break, still working on the Cleopatra's nose :)...

Here are the results of the first rough sanding. In order to better ascertain the shapes I arived at the idea of coloring the nose using black permanent marker. It takes only seconds to apply but gives uniform glossy surface which quickly reveals anything that need further attention. I think it works great, really aiding the process.

Last I heard, Cleopatra was Greek not French. Still, it is your airplane and you can name her anything you want. I understand the purpose of using black permanent marker to reveal any unseen flaws, however, it would behoove you to remove all that ink before painting. Although dry, that ink will react with paint and bleed through it over time, creating one hell of a mess. In the future, try my method which is alcohol swabs. Wipe the area in question leaving a uniform glossy surface that evaporates slowly. Alcohol swabs are also ideal for cleaning a model prior to painting. Anyway, Cleopatra's nose is looking good so far.

@fuzzmann
I think I'm pretty close to he shape, but stupidly I discovered some air bubbles in the superglue "filler", so I will have to re-fill these.

@aloisious
In these pictures I haven't started the lower nose yet, an update is forthcoming

@seamus1
I had to look it up but you're right, she was Greek, not Egyptian (nor French of course). Always learning something new. Thanks for the warning about overpainting the ink. I am indeed planning to remove the ink before painting, it seems easy enough to wipe off with Tamiya thinner.

Sanding and checking continued yesterday, and I must say that I'm quite happy with the outcome here!

Then turning the attention to the lower nose, and... ooops! Managed to sand right through the plastic. More gap-filling superglue needed.

...but I'm getting there!

It's going to be quite the looker when you get the color on it. That last shot reminds me of the classic cars from the 30's with their long hoods or bonnets as you might say.

@duffmodeler

No dremeling at all, just sanding sticks, and I thought that the plastic would be thicker...

I like the "new" lines of it, too. On a side note, I was happy to find that I hadn't been the only one thinking that the nose in the Tamiya's kit needs a bit of smoothing out. This French gentleman ( http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/model-kit-reviews/new-nose-dewoitine-520-tamiya-1-48-a-28714.html ) has apparently been working on a resin replacement nose, and his results look like this (Tamiya top, followed by "early" and "late" cowlings in resin). Considering that I'm not a D.520 expert, it's encouraging to see that my modifications go along the same lines as his - more rounded upper cowling plus shallower chin.

Absolutely. I can probably sand and scribe a bit myself, but wouldn't dream of producing something as sophisticated and detailed entirely from scratch.