Hello
Apologies for not posting earlier!
As you see, Museum Maker has been doing some fantastic work on this and for that he deserves mountains of praise.
Thanks to Solo for the particle info. I'll end up using Particular in AFX for the smoke animation, but if you're still interested in helping and would like to model the Vostok capsule, please let me know, because Museum Maker is chomping at the bit to give it a go.
Thanks for everyone's help. I'll keep you posted...
Chris