I replaced the cap; added the 3 transistors back in and fired it up and it works! it draws ~16mA@27v not amps like before :-)
After leaving both my 7150 on and the standard cell I heated the room to ~20-ish and measured 0.999815v, my other DMMs measured 0.9989v and 0.9986v (not sure i trust these). So then I hooked up my Time DV Voltage Calibrator and set to 1.0000 v and I got 0.999815v which was exactly the same as the standard cell, lol