The ripple or herring bone pattern is probably a shadow artifact. Try adjusting the "shadow bias" in the light properties. Turning it up keeps object from casting shadows on themselves. I don't know if you are moving form P4 or P5, you may also want to be sure "Smooth polygons" is unchecked for this object. It can mess up some meshes, especially mechanical objects such as your Enterprise. A new P6 feature you may find handy is crease angle. It works kind of like auto smooth in Max. Any edge sharper than the crease angle will be rendered sharp. Nerd3D