Hi Ross,

it's been a very busy past 2 days, I'll try to reply tonight ... 

I just grabbed the rainbow code, for reference:

void loop() {
  rainbowCycle(20);
}
void rainbowCycle(int SpeedDelay) {
  byte *c;
  uint16_t i, j;
  for(j=0; j<256*5; j++) { // 5 cycles of all colors on wheel
    for(i=0; i< NUM_LEDS; i++) {
      c=Wheel(((i * 256 / NUM_LEDS) + j) & 255);
      setPixel(i, *c, *(c+1), *(c+2));
    }
    showStrip();
    delay(SpeedDelay);
  }
}
byte * Wheel(byte WheelPos) {
  static byte c[3];
  
  if(WheelPos < 85) {
   c[0]=WheelPos * 3;
   c[1]=255 - WheelPos * 3;
   c[2]=0;
  } else if(WheelPos < 170) {
   WheelPos -= 85;
   c[0]=255 - WheelPos * 3;
   c[1]=0;
   c[2]=WheelPos * 3;
  } else {
   WheelPos -= 170;
   c[0]=0;
   c[1]=WheelPos * 3;
   c[2]=255 - WheelPos * 3;
  }
  return c;
}

Now, I do not have any hardware near by, but you could try something like this;
First the procedure "rainbowCycle()" sets ever single LED of a strip. "Wheel()" calculates the color depending on where the LED is in the strand.
It uses a "wheel" position - don't ask, I just copied it from AdaFruit - where a wheel is 256 steps. So 256/3 (3 base colors) would result in:

 <85   => Red colors,
 <170  => Green colors,
>=170  => Blue colors.

So let's say we want LED's "0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15" (your "Row 1") to become red then we'd have to do:

void RowRedForward(int StarLED, int LedsInStripCount) {
  for(int i = 0; i < LedsInStripCount; i++ ) {
      c=Wheel(((i * 256 / LedsInStripCount)) & 255);
      setPixel(StarLED+i, *c, *(c+1), *(c+2));
  }
}

Which would pass "i" (0...16) * 256 and divided by the number of leds in that strip section (16) and "AND" 255.
Just you counting would be different (versus Row1). So for example Row3 has only 12 LEDs, hence the variable "LedsInStripCount".
Since this example is for Red (values <85), but for any starting LED, we need to increase "i" with StartLed to get the right starting point.
Similar for the other rows, where Row2 and Row4 have a backwards loop of course (StartLed-i), something like this;

void RowRedReverse(int StarLED, int LedsInStripCount) {
  for(int i=0; i < LedsInStripCount; i++ ) {
      c=Wheel(((i * 256 / LedsInStripCount)) & 255);
      setPixel(StarLED-i, *c, *(c+1), *(c+2));
  }
}

Now to stick to the colors you want, you'll have to figure out at what "i" the color changes to what you need. I can see that to take some toying around.
Hope this helps getting you started, like I said: I have no hardware at hand right now to test 

Hi Hans,

Many thanks for the reply, its all starting to make my head hurt, lol. 

i cant get my head around the graduations, now thinking about it, as in effect it will only ever show 4 colours. Rows 1,2,3 & 4, so the graduation would need to be bigger. 

for the time being ive added all the LED numbers (191 in total) into a matrix and fill it from the bottom of the legs up to the top in a horizontal manner. to the peak would be red, and the bottom of the legs "violet" or whatever it is, cycling that way.

defining 

int RainMatrix[] ={98,97,71,70,44,43,42,136,45,69,163,72,96,190,0,1,99,18...etc };

and then calling each pixel using RainMatrix in the normal rainbow as below. 

void VerticleRainbow(uint8_t wait) {
  uint16_t i, j;
  for(j=0; j<256*5; j++) { // 5 cycles of all colors on wheel
    for(i=0; i< strip.numPixels(); i++) {
      strip.setPixelColor(RainMatrix, Wheel(((i * 256 / strip.numPixels()) + j) & 255));
    }
    strip.show();
    delay(wait);
  }
}