Thanks for the compliments. Here's a comparison photo showing the real model on top and my render on the bottom. I picture explains my modeling approach better than I could in words...
The overall shape and large greebles are modeled faithfully from the original to keep the part visually familiar, but the little "filler" details are just added by me to create lots of light and dark shadows and shapes to add complexity. This fools your mind into thinking the image is more interesting because it's more complex.
Notice the size of the pipes... the original is much larger in diameter than my model. I chose to make it smaller because it looks less cumbersome and awkward to me when added to the overall model. The original is much larger because of the physical limitations in working/gluing on tiny plastic piping by hand on the studio model. The larger pipe size also distracts your eye from focusing too much on any smaller area in particular, so the builder can get away with adding less detail, which is much harder on a physical model than with CGI meshes. I have to add in more detail than the original to compensate for the smaller pipes, or the whole greeble looks rather "empty".
So that in a nut shell is my approach to doing BSG models. Doing something like the Serenity firefly ship, or Trek models is a very different "look".
