"It sounds like you are using a front type map which stretches around the sides of cylindrical objects. You may need to experiment with cylindrical projections." Have been using planar on the Z axis. So, what you are saying makes sense. Thanks all. This is helpful, really helpful. "then the textures look stretched when rendered because a small part of the texture map is being stretched to fit the stretched faces of the mesh." Perfect sense. Thanks. I'll post a picture if this doesn't correct the problem. Tom