I'll give it all a shot - might not have time 'til the weekend, but I will get all those ideas back to you (plus throw in some more)! Also, the P&N ships - which races do you want me to try to use as archtypes?
Also, fooled around with trying to make a hex grid sphere - had some mixed results
Structural.zip
Let me know if any of these are good or how you want them modified.