Thanks Corto. Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets :/
  http://old.cstrike.co.nz/~hamburg/skeleton.jpg) 
 Thats with your ja_skeleton.xsi. The root.xsi wont even load. Perhaps I'm flogging a dead horse... or a sleeping dog... or however the saying goes, but I'm a big fan of Milk3D :) 
 (It loves Half-life models. Though I suppose thats what it was designed for... go figure)  
 Looks like Max might be the go. Thanks for your help.