MagicMike,

I was always trying to make "scrolls" as solid and failed. This morning, following your example and forgetting about solid, which I wont need anyway afterwards, I finally managed to create one that I like as a joint surface. I think Michael said something about adjacent surfaces that are self-intersecting or pretty close can causes booleans to fail.

The main reasons I prefer to work with solid are: yes it's easier to select and edit as a single object, though a joint surface is also a single object and I'm sure a solid is leak tight, no gap and no fliped normals. For some type of work like say 3D printing, I believe it's necessary to have leak tight objects but I'm sure for many other type of work, tiny gap may pretty well be insignificant.

I was also thinking about adding SubD effect (outside of Moi of course) like say a small amount of mesh displacement to simulate chisel marks or whatever especially for things like leafs and floral motifs. Now that I've found an add-on that will make retopology much easier, for me at least, I can see myself doing much more then just adding a little displacement modifier. But but but, Moi Moi Moi, I just love it and I want to use it as much as possible before going out, ideally, only for rendering. So, if joint surfaces make my life easier, why not.

Again Mike, the work you do is just great, keep them coming.

Thanks,
Felix