I'm guessing on the pillar you were trying to just "fix" the outside a little bit? Doesn't work very well that way as you found out. On the shells you have to get heavy handed with that heat gun. Repeat after me... my heat gun is my friend.... :DTalk soothing to it, keep it close and use it often. Most important... respect it's power and danger. When you clean up the shell, be prepared to take at least 1/8" to 1/4" off. I usually end up taking 1/4" or more off, inside and out. The key to a smooth finish is to keep heating and rotating as the wax melts off. The entire shell will become soft. Start at the top all the way around and slowly work your way down. Don't let it cool down and harden in the middle, while the drips and runs are soft they will melt off easier. Once you get most of it smooth run it over the whole thing while warm and you shouldn't have any drips, they will just blend in with the melting wax. Since I don't know what you're going to do with the shell, here's a possible tip. If you're planning on putting flowers or something outside, you'll be over dipping it afterwards anyway so the surface doesn't have to be perfect. If there are any small lumps, trim them off while warm so that it's level. Dipping will cover the difference int he finish there. Here's a picture of my set up I use. The shell is on a tuna can turned upside down for the excess wax to drain off. The pan underneath is a stainless steel stove burner cover sitting on a lazy susan. For the longest time I just set the can in an empty aluminum pie tin and turned by hand. It works ok too, but the turn table is so much easier. I do trim the seam off with a knife before I start zapping it though. This I haven't started on yet. You can see kinda how thick the shell is when I start. Most people probably don't have them this thick, but... as I said, I love playing with my heat gun I find it very relaxing just heating, pouring out wax, heating pouring out wax (inside work). I do clean up the inside and take out most of the extra thickness in there first, then do the outside. That way I don't mess up the finish while playing inside. The shell on the left is finished, you can see the difference in thickness. Though towards the top, the shell is thinner. The bottom has about 1.5" of solid wax left in it. Now that I've written a whole dang book here...lol, maybe the info you wanted is buried in that somewhere. PS.. ignore the mess on my bench :rolleyes2