Interesting stuff, Darren -- thanks for posting! Excellent composition and exposure on that bee.
For future reference, equipment-oriented posts like this usually fit better over in the Macro and Micro Technique and Technical Discussions forum. It gets about the same readership, but there's not so much traffic there and posts don't get buried quite so quickly.
Some people like to split their posts -- one in the Macro Gallery to show off the subject, and a separate "how I did it" post over in Technique, with the two posts cross-referenced, of course.
Splitting the posts is my personal favorite approach, for examples the maple flower
here and
here, or the wasp grooming spurs
here and
here.
--Rik