Hi FightingWolf,

First of all, thanks very much for your thorough reply, much appreciated!

OK, well, it's a relief to know that nothing I'm describing sounds way out of whack as far as workflows, etc.  I'm overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite paths to the same result in this medium.  I think you're right: it really is just a matter of becoming more familiar with the various morphs.

So to clarify/answer some of your questions...

Quote - Should I have built the character from a zeroed V4.2 base instead of starting from the custom themed character?

I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you building your character based off another character that you purchased?  If so there may be limitations to the character that you purchased and not to the v4.2 character.  For me I build my characters from v4.2 without the character morphs used.  The only reason I buy characters is for the skin.  The only reason I start from v4.2 is because it allows me to have a fresh start in terms of creating unique characters.

Yes, I've purchased a v4.2 compatible character and applied additional morphs to the face and body.  In addition to liking the skin/mats I thought this would be a starting point because the purchased character already has several of the features I want in my custom character.  Perhaps I should start over with the v4.2 base.  Granted, the changes I made weren't drastic, everything is pretty subtle overall which is why I was surprised to have such difficulty with fitting, etc.

Quote - I don't think it's so much about your workflow as it is your familiarity of the morphs that you are using.  The only other options that I know is to sculpt the character so you don't need to mess with the dial.

OK -- I'm still interested in the option of bringing the current mesh into Zbrush or equivalent tool to finalize the details I want.  My only concern is will doing so introduce any potential problems down the road once I start doing more posing/animating or is it a relatively safe technique -- these last tweaks are so subtle I don't see how it could become a problem later.

Quote - I'm curious.  what type of lips are you trying to create?

Just some pretty basic lips I'm referencing from a photo, they (like the nose) just have some unique features that kind of fall in between the standard morph options I've come across so far.  I'm open to purchasing some new morphs for that, but again if sculpting them myself is a viable way to do it, I'd rather do that.  I've attached a shot of both nose and mouth.

For the nose, I've struggled with getting that curved that's created by the nostrils and the bottom of the tip.  Also, this nose has some unique features around the outer nostril area -- notice the little crevice running up along the side of the outer nostril flesh.  This seems to be a pretty unique feature and I've had no luck getting any of the morphs to recreate this effect, even approximately.

The mouth is a little easier, but also kind of unique. The upper lip has been the tricky part.  It's pretty thin compared to the average mouth. Plus the philtrum peaks are kind of rounded off and faintly defined.  Finally, the outer portion of the upper lip, it's height and curvature -- another feature that I've struggled with.  All of the morphs I've used create too much of a tapering for the height.  In this photo, the height remains pretty consistent up until right before the edge and then it curves up.

I'm beginning to think I should sculpt these myself. 

So I guess my next question is are there any red flags, best practices, etc. to sculpting details in ZBrush and then bringing the character back into Poser?  I'm sure there are plenty of tutorials on this, but just curious if there are any common first-timer mistakes that I should avoid...

Thanks again!