gster - thanks mate - I have one just the same as that - so you reckon that thing on the back is a fan? - I figured it was some kind of umbrella.

tweetytunes / goksimaster - thanks for the crit - yeah his neck is definately too long. At the moment I am keeping him fairly close to my 3dsk referance while I block him out. I am planning to deform him to make him a lot more podgy, though part of me kind of likes the idea of doing a fairly realistic looking hotei as well.

Here is a small update - I attached the hands and did a bit more work on his body...