I tried scaling up. Certainly looks way better, but still not quite something I'm happy with.
But that doesn't really discourage me, I played some other mods and got inspiration for some other styles, too. The only challenge I'm really having now is how to properly UV unwrap more intricate models.
Sorry I don't have a straight answer for what I'm going for, other than the fact that I wanted it to look like something off the Sega Saturn or Playstation. Mega Man Legends was pretty heavy inspiration for what I had in mind as far as the art style goes.
As far as the solid colors go, I tried that too, but Starfox had such simple yet impactful designs for their ships. Mine don't seem to be able to adopt that style without looking a bit... plastic, if that makes any sense.
That said, I'm learning a lot about other methods of texturing. Once UV unwrapping makes more sense to me I might be good to go. I have another thread for that discussion here if you wanted to weigh in and help me understand that better:
https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=98022.0