I've had the good fortune to be offered some help by another Blender artist Pieriko. I'm not versed in the Cycles render engine but Pieriko has worked on this model for me. Totally different to the Blender Internal that I've been working with (but I'm using BI out of the necessity of render time for animation).
My many thanks go to Pieriko for their expertise and taking the time to help me out. Awesome
https://cgcookie.com/profile/pieriko/
