SurfaceSuite Pro does what you're talking about. It allows you to tack a photo onto a 3d model, you can move each tack individually so you can perfectly stretch parts of the photo to match the model. I think this program was discontinued, but it's awesome and you might be able to find it fairly cheap if you look around.

Your final image has the inside lightwave 6 span setup. Why not just have done the inside lightwave tutorial to get to that point, or do you find this box method is quicker/more intuitive for you?

I import booleaned lightwave objects into Vue with no problem. Sometimes when you boolean, say, X object minus Y object, Y's surface might end up on X where it sliced into X. This might cause the booleaned area to not show up. Whatever the case, if you resurface the object after the boolean, that should care of whatever the problem is.