The problems were various.
1. The textures I was using initially had some kind of flaw in them. I don't know what this was, but presumably something to do with the alpha channel.
2. When I created new textures and laid them on the model, the engine preview was still showing the problem... turns out that this was because I wasn't saving the model again first... but ultimately this was the right fix - because when I saved the model again with the new texture and THEN ran the preview, it worked fine.
So... a simple problem with a slightly un-untuitive bit on MED confusing me while I was trying to fix it.
In short, remove all the old textures, remap the model as ATLAS, and then import a new texture, save the model, THEN preview it - and it worked just fine.
For the record - No, I did not model that. It's from an MMO game called Eve Online.
http://www.eveonline.com/I was putting together an action "Wing Commander" style game set in the same universe for the benefit of the fanbase. (This was my "Hello World" equivalent. I like to jump in the deep end.)
Getting the skinning sorted was really the last piece of the puzzle.
I will be using my own models for future projects.
http://www.elfwood.com/~maddox/Subway-3c-version-2.3004651.htmlhttp://www.elfwood.com/~maddox/SteamPunk-Zepellin.3004660.html(etc)
Rob