I’m in Ontario Canada and the walnut came from a small mill here.
Hardwood is always expensive, especially if it is not a local one. I have a full wood shop so I start with rough lumber which helps but ya, the cost hurts as a hobby maker. On a project like this, the end result is likely 1/4th of the wood I started with too.
So I ran your bit combinations (at my speeds & a 1.2 Scale factor) and got 4hrs to do the thing.
But if I add a 1/8" endmill it drops to 2:36 because the 1/8" endmill does a 1st pass in the finish operation that clears out much faster than the 1/8" ballnose because the tip is so much wider than the ballnose.
If I add a 1/8" ballnose to the 3D finish operation then it does go up to 2:50 so it’s probably not worth trying to squeeze anymore speed using clearing passes in the 3D finish operation.
But, one thing I noticed was reeding on the wing feathers (that’s the vertical lines you see on quarters & dimes).
So I applied smoothing to the component (about 50%) and that dropped the total to 2:26 using the 1/4 em, 1/8 em, 1/16 bn. The 10 minutes saved is likely due to not needing to carve the in/outs of the feather edges without the reeding. I like it smoother but you could do it your way without smooting and be fine.
Hope that helps.
You helped an absolute TON. I figured out by how you worded things, what I was doing wrong.
In Fusion, you need to create a toolpath for each operation, and I carried that same mentality here. As I read your post, it sounded like you were doing one operation but had multiple tools in it, so I looked a little closer and yep, I see that in the 3D Finishing operation I can enter in multiple bits and it knows how to optimize each successively smaller bit. That made all the difference in the world.
Now, I am getting 2:42 when I use 1/4 em, then 1/8 em and then finally the 1/16 bn That is MUCH more reasonable. I still can’t load it in 1F to see what it specifically estimates, but at least I am now in the ballpark of what I would have expected. THANK YOU!
I also learned from your smoothing operation (which I like better too). I would not have guessed that smoothing would actually reduce machining time, but it makes sense how you described it.
So, now I need to figure out why Carveco is still too high in the machine time. I have looked over all the settings (as best as I know) and I have only been able to drop it down to 35 hours. I sent a note to support to see if they can point out what I am doing wrong.
Thanks everyone, this has been a huge learning experience. 
For those interested in Carveco Maker + and VCarve Pro comparison, I just heard back from support from Carveco.
The reason for my extended carve times is that Carveco doesn’t support rest machining between toolpaths in their Maker + product. You have to purchase their top tier Carveco to get that, which is WAY out of my budget. Maker + was a bit of a stretch for my wallet, but top tier is almost 7 times that amount. 
I guess the decision is clear now.
