we couldn't talk him out of it *rolls eyes*. that's not a pattern either, that's 50-70k polies worth of hull
Holy hell!!! And (to be frank), it doesn't even look that good. Model would look alot better with LESS polies, and a more subtle "hull paneling" pattern.
I've tested and the jj proxima, but the ship has some displaying issues. I have to make some magic tricks to detach any part and then I think the ship will work. It is normal to have issues like these. It is around 90 000 polies (around 3,2MB nif).
Look at WC's Galaxy model... At a "fraction" of the total polycount you are using, he has achieved a model that looks (in my opinion), far superior. Consider remodelling from scratch, at a considerably lower polycount. You'll see, the results will be alot better.