Are these your own findings or did you try the mat pose that was posted by dave on freestuff. I think it looks great but it looks there is too much ambience on the skin, EmpressZario suggested back on a thread that translucency didn't work well on some lighting environments http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1373422 maybe try to tone down the lighting a bit. it's looking good keep working with it :)