Built my Ares from the Ambroid? kit in 1966 at Wheelus AFB. Cowl was built up from several pieces of thick wood (1/4"?), roughed out with my trusty Dremel 260, then finished to fit by hand with several different grits of sandpaper.
Had a lot of fun with that thing (left off the wheel pants for flying from sand. Lots of that in Libya.) Really had fun when a bud built one. We did some "Team" flying, concentric loops, reverse wgovers, simple stuff. Mine had a Fox, his had a Torp Greenhead. The Fox started usually first flip on our homebrew (75?% tlar methanol from POL, 25% castor from the hospital sqadron, and a couple squirts of Ronson or Zippo lighter fluid from the BX), the Greenhed took a couple flips, so about the release, he was picking up his handle. I got about half way around the circle when his got airborn. Then the fun started. Thing that helped, I think, was that I am 4'6", and he was 6' 1". Was a lot of fun, till I had an Oh Sh** moment.
Funny thing is, that Libyan sand wrecked a Veco, and a couple Johnsons I had, I'm still using that Fox with the original piston and liner. And I think it ran better on that homebrew than it does with modern glow fuels with extra castor added.