(SOLVED!) How to get outline meshes to work in Blender

[ToxicCaves]

You're looking for "backface culling". Try starting with this and see where you end up. (Don't forget that the outline object's normals will need to be pointed inwards rather than outwards.)

this has given me some improvements but not completely there.
In the texture and material previews i have a visible thick outline now around the model :

 
but when rendered it goes completely invisible :
 
i know that link said cycles render, but with that I only get a grey model with less of an outline and more of some weird dark edges. I fiddled with the alpha and colors on the nodes but it didn't change much of anything.
Thanks for the help so far though! Definitely getting somewhere now at least.