Thank you both for your help. I know that Michael has been patent enough to explain about Carrara and normal before so I am Doubly grateful this time. Chipp that was a great pictorial explanation too. The model I copied on turbo squid http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-model-cartoon-crab/822724 has only 5,646 polygons and looks very smooth. Do you think the problems I am having are to do with the software I am using rather than the models I produce? I think my modeling is getting better but my renders are disappointing.