Thanks Carolly, I will give your suggestion for the Thrush a try. Also, I thought of lightening up the background just a tad maybe or else bumping up the ambient light for the entire scene just a tad as it may be too dark overall. I used a texture for the sky on Cypher's stardome (free stuff) and it is lighter and darker streaked in spots - I can lighten up and even change the look of the sky a bit by rotating the dome so that the swirl pattern on the texture renders different. I think if I lower and move the Thrust in toward Bard's shoulder just a tad and mayby adjust the sky prop so that there is more purple highlight than black showing through in the background that it might help with the contrast. Any thoughts on that? Thanks again, Rob