Eureka!!!

Excellent- after much searching on the web (I must say that google is getting REALLY crap these days) I eventually found what the problem was with my armour texture. Apparently I had set up the mesh that I’d made to be used as the model for the item when it’s on the ground (hence it working semi properly when it was dropped) BUT!!! If I want the mesh to be displayed on the player, then I have to also define the mesh as a new body part in the editor first, THEN ALSO as an armour part and then it should work… excellent! See here and here for details

Stay tuned for the results...