One small update-

This works real well using path clones:
Click image for larger version. 

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And an updated zip of the svg file with path clones:
working.zip

@bryguy - I love gimp but inkscape is way better for a number of things. I almost always bring a bitmap into inkscape to do all my labelling, then export the labelling back out as either a png to being back into gimp as a layer, or a plain svg file I can import into gimp as a path.

-Rob A>