If I could be a bit bold and make a few suggestions.
Not sure of what program you're using but I've animated both of these models. The TIE model is truly a beauty. It benefits immensely from two alterations. (1) Open Photoshop and paint some dirt smudges into the textures. (2) embed a disc in each engine and give it 200-300% ambient with a glow. The latter really makes the engines come to life.
My other suggestion would be to completely kill any ambient light in your scene, place one hard key light above and to the backside of the models and two to four fill lights. Sometimes it helps the TIE model to have the fills with a slight peach tone. Both models will benefit from the hard lighting as the shadows really bring out the detail. You're losing an immense amount of the value of these models with your current lighting setup.
I've played around with the Mark II viper model a bit and it benefits from using radiosity, although this will blow your render times all to Hell. It also responds well with HDRI. I've never used the same setup with the TIE but I suspect the results would be pretty awesome. The Mark II also really likes having the gloss pumped up. It likes it better if you use a filter or plugin to get the "showroom floor" look on the white hull. Likewise, adding a slight metal sheen and some noise to the exposed steel really makes the model come to life.
FWIW, when animating, I've also found that the TIE works well with sweeping flight paths and having the model lean into the turns and then lean out once the turn is made. That seems to give it a stronger dancing feel and makes the action seem a bit more vibrant. The viper doesn't necessarily benefit from the same technique. Based on rendering the classic viper, I've found it likes to change its position vertically in the shot as that gives it a strong fighting look. It also likes to show the belly when it does flybys. If appropriate, have it bank the cockpit away from the camera when it races past the camera.
Hope that helps.
You should check out the following links. I think you'd find them very useful.
http://www.hyperfocaldesign.com/tuto...twave-tutorial
http://members.shaw.ca/lightwavetutorials/lighting.htm
If I can help, please let me know.
All my best,
Russell
