Getting the wood ready to attach a pattern, cutting the pieces out with the scroll saw, or getting all the pieces shaped and sanded down was not the hardest part. The hardest part is yet to be tried 

   I have started staining and coloring the wood and am fixing to get to the gluing stage...after I figure out how to keep tract of all the little pieces. So far the back ground and scenery pieces are large enough to remember where they fit in,  but from the picture, the heifer and horse and cowboy has no color yet....

 And I can get all the pieces colored but the rest of the story has me buffaloed

The black and white picture I used as a pattern was clear enough for the scroll saw but any glue will not give me enough time.

I posted this the first part of Dec and has been buggin me since then. Sat. I got brave enough to start on it again and got this far. The picture I have been going by is at the top and it is not much help.

  I need some 3 or 4 hour glue to stay completely soft until I snap my fingers and say now. I do have all sizes of syringes and long stingers to put the glue down where it needs to be, but keeping it off of the top area is impossible. So I think I see the reason these people that do intarsia  work only use eight or ten pieces of wood for each pictures...

 

Looking at the above image, once you paint all individual pieces, could you reassemble then as above...use painters tape to hold all pieces together, apply glue to designated areas, then lay down the taped up assembly? Kinda like imosaic tile patterns that are matted together? Once dry, remove painters tape...voila, project done?

 

IDK...it's Monday morning, still haven't got all my coffee ingested, so above thoughts may be totally absurd...I was never good at puzzles anyway 'cause I don't have the patience...

No help here. But, you'll figure it out and it's going to be one nice piece of work. 

Good luck.

I saw some foam board, at the craft place, that you peeled off a paper layer exposing a tacky surface. Could you set up all the pieces on something like this, lift them off one at a time to paint and then put them back in their original location, on the tacky board? Once the paint is dry, you'd have the complete cowboy/horse/calf. Then each finished, painted piece could be moved to its' permanent location on the intarsia project.

 

I've never made an intarsia project so maybe I'm just pounding sand.

Dave when I put this lion together, before I started gluing this pieces in the box, I slipped in 1/16" spacers on all four sides of the box. The spacers are to take out the gaps the saw blade makes while cutting out the pieces making everything tight up against each other like no gap existed. 

Then I started on one side taking one piece out , added a little glue to each piece, pressing it back in its slot and going one at a time till I got to the other side. Some where I didn't get every piece exactly glued where it should have been and all of a sudden the last 30 pieces or so was too big and they would not fit. I had to sand each of the remaining pieces down to complete the picture. Boy , lots of unexpected work.

   Its like your explanation but if all pieces are not taped exactly perfect everything is okay till you get to the corner of the room with those last few tiles seemed to have enlarged.

Hmmmmm, interesting dilema, sir.  Especially with the lion I can get exactly what the problem is.  I have never done an intarsia piece inside a frame, so I'm not much help either.  Be sure to keep us updated.