Attached is an altered screen shot illustrating a problem I'm having with the thumbnails which illustrate props.

The big piece in the middle is the rendered prop; the little piece in the lower right corner is the thumbnail. I added the prop to the menu immediately after rendering. Obviously, there's a bit of a difference.

The other items in the picture show things I thought might be relevant, but obviously I'm a bit at sea here. Behind the scenes are bump maps, reflection maps, reflection colors, ambient colors, object colors, and reflection settings.

I'd like the preview thumb to show what the object will look like when rendered. What am I missing here?