o maya...you are a weird one

so i have been getting model to tip top quality but it wasnt until i mirrored the geometry that i realised so much of it was still...not 100%. I also noticed mirroring the geometry had made some weird changes to my vertices...flattening them...changing them to one. I tried a few different methods, inserting more edge loops, hoping breaking up the geometry would aid mayas calculations when mirroring. I also tried to fill in the geometry gaps of the collar square at the sides so it wouldnt crush flat this detail i wished to keep. No luck however and after racking my brains i tried just pulling the verticies way out from how i wanted them and...bingo....it worked. Maya is strange sometimes...really is...ah well..another problem solved. Im still going over the model and tweaking...the shapes not completely right and needs rounding off. The collar is looking much better now though.

mirroring geometry resulted in flattening of verticies, instead of 4 i have 2...no idea why this has happened. 

Same with the back of the geometry...i guess my deleted faces may have confused Maya in its calculating of mirroring. Here the verts are pinched in...results in odd looking smooth.
Solution? If your having problems like this just make the shape your trying to create more obvious for Maya
Of course this will affect the mirror but then at least you have the correct number of verts to tweak into the desired shape.
Result...better smooth, details are kept.
Other alterations:

So as im going through and tidying up...ive noticed that Poca's arms are weeerrrrhey too long. This is down to my model sheet being....well...wrong (lesson for future projects) but im never too good at getting arm length proportions correct...i did a quick rig for the arm and rotated it down to see how long her arm would actually be...she'd basically be scraping her knuckles along the floor! No child deserves that...no matter how much they want to be a gorilla. Ive gone and pulled the verts in so the arms at a better length. Im not aiming for correct proportions here but ones that dont look completly wrong!

the model against its reference sheet. You can see where my arm was A. not straight and B. wrong length. Im aware that the model doesnt match up entirely to its model sheet...thats because the feet werent touching the floor and where i've shifted it slightly.

Step back and see. Yep very pleased with this now :D