Its not that no-one cares. Its just that (for a change) no-one is posting unless they have helpful advice.

And this problem is a bastitch!

Is it OK if I do a complete re-write of (just) the paint_fill function.
It is currently unclear to me if the number of instances of itself is just blowing out,
or if the number of instances is overloading the limited "vector()" function storage space(limit 12).

I am currently thinking its just generating too many instances and falling over its own feet.

PS I will start on the re-write now in case you are in a different time zone to me.

[EDIT] Its definately crashing due to the paint_fill calling itself multiple times per pixel, which
then calls itself, which then calls itself, ad infinitum... Crashes my machine at about 3500 instances.
Still working on it...