Yeah collections really help spread the love of older builds :)

Oh, I get it.
This is basically the next step for my ships to look better ^^
I'm currently experimenting on a new design I'll publish shortly, it should be a bit more refined than the ones I've made yet (in fact, I'm planning to make a collection)

I recommend the dirty or damaged skin since they both don't require DLC.
(there are still people out there that think it's expensive for some reason)

Damaged especially looks good on mechanical stuff, I like to use dark grey or black to get a really nice look out of it. Dirty (default) looks pretty good as armor plating. Interiors can always have a clean look if you fancy it; Since you generally won't have dust or rocks bouncing off it in there ;)

I knew I made it too big x) I'll try to focus on smaller ships in the future.
I'll try some stuff with skins to determine which one looks best, I get what you're saying about heay armor.
Thanks for the input! I'm eagerly awaiting your next ships ^^

My PC quite simply cannot handle this, so I can't say I played around with it.

My only gripe is the clean heavy armor and paints. Clean heavy armor makes it look very "plastic" and gives it a very "I built this in alpha" look to it. The only other critque I have is that the purple around the edges look really odd due to the nature of no diagnol paint.. Granted it isn't possible in this game, but there are methods to get this effect without having that look. There is a lot going on with this ship which makes it really nice nonetheless :)