I respect your opinion prob more than most as i have witnessed your own modelling skills and must say they are awesome. But im sorry to say i must disagree with you on your pionts.
1, the skins i believe are the same skin, the differnce is the colour depth and bump mapping (or lack of it), spawns picture lacks the depth of colour and the defining lines that the first model have, this is prob due to the second layer of the skin that defines the bump mapping not being used, if you look at the USMC it clearly starts at EXACTLY the same point, the little black line just on the bend of the wing again in EXACTLY the same point, even the little red symbol under the M is there in the same place.
2, The white background on the Lt nathan west name tag is in my opinion caused by the fact that on the original skin the map was used as an opacity map and had a white background, now when that is rendered in 3d studio this would have only shown the black textas the white part was the "see through" part , but when rendered in a package that doesnt support opacity mapping such as milk shape and i believe lightwave. this would appear to be black text on a white background.
3, The hard edge is indeed caused by the viewpiont, as this edge is the underside of the main hull and is not visible from the angle in spawns shot.
@ everyone
Now please ppl dont misunderstand my purpose here, im not out to flame or disrespect spawn in anyway, i think spawn is a very talented graphics artist and has created some very good images. As a modeller myself i get angry when i see ppl taking credit for work that is not theirs, if spawn has indeed remodelled this ship then i take my hat of to him and eat my words, if he hasnt then all im askin is that he gives credit where its due n says that another modeller has actually made this ship....i too now consider this topic closed and will leave it to the readers to judge.