I think the problem http://answers.ros.org/question/102276/this-robot-has-a-joint-named-foo-which-is-not-in-the-gazebo-model/ was due to having a gazebo controlled joint that attached to a link with no physical properties.  There are some other namespace adjustments that I've made that seemed also necessary, though I'm getting a 'Controller Spawner couldn't find the expected controller_manager ROS interface.' warning right now.  But the model appears in gazebo at least.
The robot_description is back on the root beacuse controller_manager couldn't seem to find it otherwise.  It looks like the whole model is getting shown in gazebo, though the purely visual joints and links disappear because they have no physical properties.  For some reason 'head' doesn't appear as a link in the expandable menu in gazebo.