Trashman, I think the problem with the first one is that its simplistic textures (which do give it an imposing military feel, I'll admit) serve here only to accentuate the already extremely blocky and basic design of the ship/station in the first place. Those antennae on the first model, for example, could be a different texture to make them stand out against the hull. As it is, while I feel like there is a little complexity there, it gets completely lost in the uniform texture scheme. And all said and done, both of these things look like they are sitting in the neighborhood of 200-300 polys, which is low even by freespace standards. Try making them more detailed (insetting windows here and there, breaking apart large flat areas) and see how much more people like them.
