When you say harder mate i take it you mean difficulty In my opinion the render takes longer to get right than skimming with finish you only have a few products which only vary slightly in timing ,Knauf for instance has more clay in it so it can take longer to get a good finish. Renders there are loads of finishes from plain faced to these new polymers and what have you. You have to remember ratios of mixes ect, I dont mind either to tell you the truth, always keen to learn stuff.whats harder skimming or rendering
and what do people prefer  :-?
nah mate, just read too much andy mcnab!i like both, but as i don't do a great deal of rendering, i get more satisfaction from a days rendering than i do skimming. ps . were you ever a squaddie segs? i've only ever heard ppppppp from ex services!