Hi Marky
It's me, Bob, again. The Bike I am getting has been re-sprayed a completely different colour with a black and white check pattern on the side covers, so as part of my project I will be getting the side covers back to a more normal look. I face the same problem as you, that getting side covers (usually only available in the US of A) are expensive to buy and ship over to OZ. So I will be painting the side panels myself to match the existing bike colour (light blue) and getting stickers printed from companies on the internet (VT500 and Ascot). I found heaps of these available on line where you can choose your font, Bold, Itallic, border, colour etc for only a couple of dollars each. They do not come out exactly the same as oem, but still look good (considering the bike will no longer be stock). I found the "Ascot" printed in "freestyle script" looks really close. Like yourself the Honda and wings are available locally cheap enough.
Cheers Bob