Yea I'm definitely planning to practice the swirls a ton. That's the main reason I'm expecting and planning this build to take a while. I don't want to rush in to the swirling, and I want to make sure I can consistently get a pretty decent result before jumping in to a full body swirl.
I've also had a little extra thought for an idea with the headstock. I'm thinking I might make it tiered, example below
Buut, I was thinking swirling the top tier, and just leaving the bottom tier plain white. And also using the CBS and modern Strat headstock sizes as the tiers. Mockup example below:
It doesn't look like it'd add much there, but with a slightly black-leaning swirl, and 3mm or so of depth I think it could add a nice little outline effect to the headstock.