Well, I think I'm more or less there. It was a challenge indeed... Maybe some of the problems were due to gaps in my knowledge, but Hexagon not doing 'what it says on the tin' is also frustrating.  I couldnt get a good version of the 'net' on the top part by modeling the geometry. Couldnt get a good vue texture either, but I learned how to do a transparency and bump maps for it in Photoshop and I think that part is OK. I'll have another look at it during the weekend for last tweaks. Any comments are very welcome, but I think I got to the current limit of my ability...

"I paint that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence."
Man Ray, modernist painter
http://artpearl.redbubble.com/