What do your ships look like? (was: Minatures)

Speaking of scratch-building ships, I've been thinking about the "looks"
of
ship design, ie -- why a ship looks the way it does. I build "prototype"
ships from clay and so forth, make a mold out of RTV rubber, and then
cast my
minis out of lead; as such, I'm not really constrained by parts
availablity,
and can make ships look pretty much however I want. The question is,
what
_should_ a spaceship look like? How much of it's looks are due to
function
and how much to aesthetics? Since there are obviously no right or wrong
answers here, I thought it might make an interesting topic for
discussion.

Of course, a lot depends on what flavor of "techno-babble" you're using.
If
your ships don't have artificial gravity, then there will probably be
some
sort of rotating section, like the EA ships on B5; if whatever you're
using
for power generation produces deadly radiation, then you'll want to
seperate
your engines from your maned areas, and so forth. 

In most sci-fi, there seems to be two general "schools" of design. One
is the
"saucer & boom" approach; examples include most Star Trek ships, as well
as
many of CMD's New Anglian ships. This style looks cool, but I'm not sure
it
makes sense in a warship; I always thought that those long booms made
very
vulnerable targets. Some backgrounds say the reason for this is so the
crew
compartments can survive if the engines are destroyed, although given
the
amount of energy that would be released, this explanation seems rather
thin
to me. 

The other is the "box" style; the extreme example of this is of course
the
Borg cube ship from Star Trek. Less-extreme examples are the Nostromo
from
Aliens, and CMD's New Swabian ships (the ones I've seen, at any rate).
This
style assumes that since no streamlining is required (assuming
atmospheric
capability is not desired), then the more compact the better. This would
seem
to give greater structural integrity, as well as making high-G turns
more
bearable for the crew by keeping your mass closer to the center. 

Most ship designs seem to be some mix and variety of these two
philosophies.
Like I said, I don't think there are any right or wrong answers; I'm
just
curious to hear what you all think. Any thoughts?

Scott Field

"Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other people's needs. Very
sad
life; probably have very sad death. But ... at least there is symmetry."