Solved the image size problem.
I found the correct file and saw that the image was being set by my 'shopping cart' image sizes. So went into conf/images/shopping cart width/height and changed them to get the size I wanted in both my featured and specials sideboxes. Hopes this help anybody else with the same problem. Since I don't have a shopping cart image it shouldn't effect anything else (fingers crossed !)
Meanwhile I'm still trying to figure out the amount of products display within the boxes. Set the amount via conf/max values etc but it has made no difference.