Hmmm...
I did mine to stand out in truth, I don't really care if he changes them to his liking. I got in to this for myself and then shared with Kaenyne who pushed me into releasing for the public at large. If he uses anything I did I just ask to be in the readme file that is it, Khaliban also stated that was fine with him in the general premission sticky.
As for the Blue colours:
I have done two shades one was based on the FPF blue from their banners, which I thought looked cool. The other I did because I wanted ti to stand out against the whiteness of the hull aztec i use, it is a vibrant blue for that reason. In between the 2 blues I used Wilard Deckers Kambatta fits in and those pics are the closest to his work. Khaliban also released his in the 1701 and 1701A the 1701A is darker than the 1701. His are also coloured to match the studio models colours and they do before the lighting and special effects shots are done.
Quick overview of the colours.
So if he wants to change them there is no one I can think of that will stop him, I at least feel you should change things to the way you like them.
Now in comparing the two models they are completely different
Pneumonic81s' is about 2 years older and about 6000+ polies lighter, they are not in the same class. They really can not be compared, it is not that P81 could not do accurate High poly models, it was because the community here begged him not to as not everyone could run those. P81s are much more SFC friendly and one of the reasons I started to redo his work with new textures.
Now Texturing in General:
sabrewings, you are starting off the same way we all did by changing the colours of existing textures. Next step in is creating a new pattern for the aztecs and applying your textures to it tin the same spots. Later if you get milkshape, max, and/or Uview you will then be able to apply your textures (welcome to where I am about to go soon appling these things).
krio2006
Well texturing is harder than making a model from what I have heard (don't know as all I do is texture, for now at least). Most ppl take longer to do textures than it took to create 4-5 models, and usually the textures pale before the model. Here is pretty much how it goes a great model will still look bad with unappealing textures. a low poly ugly model will look good with great textures they can fill in the details. Now it is in the details that all the problems occur and were all the time goes example.
This ship took 3-4 hours to do once I figured out they layout from other variations I did on it
This ship took 3 days to texture mostly because the textures were in odd places and took time to figure out.
This one took 2 weeks to finish it to this point, I could have kept going and adding more and more details but they were at the point where I could move on so I did.
Top one is Khalibans, the other two are P81s low poly ships. As you can see, unless you are up close, with the right textures you can not really tell the difference to much between a High poly model and a low one.
Now last but not least, if you have questions we have a small group of modellers
Here!. we are in the process of writing tutorials and will answer questions as best we can. Every so often we group up on MSN or something and trade ideas and help each other out with pointers or ideas to complete things. So swing by TCS and ask away we will help you where we can.