I've managed to convert the CG Sov model over to Blender, applied the textures but can't get the windows, engines etc to light up. Can anybody point me in the right direction please?
Being a Blender user myself, and having experimented redering ships in it, I may be able to help here. The way I acheived it was to put the standard texture on the material, but also have a duplicate where the 'Use Alpha' button is on in the 'Map Image' tab of the Texture Buttons menu. After, I went to the 'Map To' tab on the Materials menu and changed the texture's map to 'Emit'.
At this point, I'd make sure that on the 'Links and Pipeline' tab the 'Radio' button is on, and on the Render Scene menu, the Radiosity button is on. This should make for some fairly decent glows. The same method could also be adaped for the speculars as well.
Get a decent 3D Modelling app?
TBH, I find Blender very intuitive. Sure, it's not as powerful as Max, but its very good at what it does.