Nice repro with old data, but new knowledge Alex. It is an ongoing quest to out do ourselves. Without it, we'd never improve. Good colour balance in both images. Despite what many believe, clusters are quite challenging to process. Sure we aren't talking about major differences in dynamic range here, but managing the stellar profile is critical to ensuring stars maintain rich colours and an aesthetic image.
http://www.rc-astro.com/resources/ta...StarColors.htm - worth reviewing.