Ok Star4mation, you win :) But thank you as this was a spur to a learning curve on Bryce... which I've abandoned for far too long. Original scene - 8 mins to set up (no dragon) Original render - shaping up to be hoooooours. Cancelled & looked at render settings Played around and experimented (also dropped px size of final image, which I'd probably not do again, as I prefer to render large and then shrink where possible) Turned off the refraction index & transmissions. Left optimisation & anti-ailiasing as Normal/Regular as I tried dropping it and things just looked hideously chunky. Several test renders, a couple of minor tweaks and a dragon later, the render time was 19mins, 33 seconds - which may not sound that flash, but anything involving foliage has previously taken a minimum of 3 hours. So it's taught me a bit more about a program I've really only just begun to explore and for that incentive, thank you :) Postwork was about 3 mins worth with a minor twitch on the contrast and a bit of diffuse glow in Adobe Elements, oh and a beveled edge. Of course, if I can ever get it render As Shanim hair in under a decade (hey, you pay for quality, I know!) I'll be happy ... but hopefully won't stop learning! However.. in the interim.. you remain Uber Speed Bryce Ninja.