thanks Az, The base is actually a vertex object. I tried to make it spline object but ,for some reason I haven't figured out yet, I couldn't get my cross-section to extrude in a plain 2D rectangle. Things always kept getting warped out of shape, even though I thought I had all the settings right (pipeline extrusion method, symetrical in plane, etc.) So I ended up doing it in the vertex modeller and sweeping my shape along a rectanular path. You're right, I should've increased the surface fidelity on it from the beginning. I've tried subdividing it in the vertex modeller, with some rather odd results. I'll admit, I still have a lot to learn about the VM. Am working on re-making the base object from scratch to fix that problem you noticed, since I can't figure out any other way to do it. As for the colors.. that second post of mine was from the computer I use at work. It seems that the problem I was complaining about was just the crappy video card in that machine. Got back home, and it looks just fine. (both are Windows PC's) and, yeah, I was chuckling like a mad-man when I put that 'Boolean' in there... simple pleasures for simple minds. :o)