Personally, I would build brand new models for the Tyranid vessels. There is plenty of designs for them done by GW and would give it more of a Warhammer feel then reskinned Freelancer ships. The best bet I think is not to try and overstretch yourself. Start with just a couple of races (Imperial (naturally) + two of the alien races, perhaps Eldar and Chaos before moving onto include others with future versions like the Orks, Tyranids and Tau).
I am half way through texturing the model at the moment, but I will probably release the models to people once I have the entire fleet (you know, Dominator Class, Mars Class, Luna class etc....) as they are all based on the same chasis as the Gothic and the way I have built the model means swapping the modules on the side at the modelling stage won't be difficult. I have currently textured it in a predominantly white colour with blue off colour for the ridging, though I also plan to do a few colour variations as with most of 40k and BF:G, different fleets and armies have different colour schemes. White and Blue seemed quite common, as does Green and Yellow and Blue and Yellow, so I will probably do a version in each colour.
EDIT: Got the ships textured in four different colour schemes as the pic below shows. Now I just need to build the six other varients of the standard Imperial Cruiser design (Mars, Dominator, Tyrant, Lunar, OverLord and Dictator). It should not take too long to do as each type is only a small varient on the basic Gothic Class Cruiser design with different weapon configurations etc...
Once I've got those other six cruisers done, I think I will have a crack at the Cobra and Firestorm class Escort ships and possibly the Lightning Space Fighter and Marauder Bomber. I might also have a look into seeing how to achieve glow maps for these models, as it does enhance the appearance (especially of capital ships like these) no end.
EDIT Again:
Ok, so I have now finished building nine classes of Imperial Cruiser (the Jovian and Orion are not from the main Rulebook, they appear in Official Battlefleet Gothic Magazine, Issue One). With each of these in four colours each, thats a massive 36 ship models built already. However, sadly I noticed last night after I transferred them into HardCMP that they have a few cracks in them, so I am going to have to go back and repair those before I can count them as finalised, unfortunately, my actual PC is in the middle of a Reformat.
Having built these now, I am seriousily considering building a BF:G mod myself, especially as you seem to be wanting to concentrate on the smaller ships and put it to Freelancer Scale, so these would be better off as one off capital ships or more likely, bases for your systems. The mod I am thinking off though would scale everything down and use a Forum driven TE rule set that combines BF:G style with Freelancer. Should be interresting if I can get it right.
Freeworlds Mod Developer
Author of Modular Station
'There is no Good nor Evil in the universe, just perceptions and circumstances.'
Edited by - Aldebaran28 on 1/27/2006 7:23:38 AM