Quote - The number of lights affects the render times. If you turned your cockpit into a light then each polygon in the surface is a light source, which adds time. A more efficient approach is to turn the cockpit into a glass plane, set it to archi and place a light source, a meshlight, underneath. 

Cheers.

 

Thanks finally I dont think it was due to the lighting cause I rendered it without the converted lights (simulating shutting the ship down) and it took just as long with just a few mesh lights. I am guessing perhaps because I had converted all the other surfaces to Reality default metal? Anyhoo no matter I am getting what I want done. I was just commenting an the extreme times depending on what is set up in a scene...

 

Also I have scene you coment on using the sun being a harsh light. I have no problems with it. I find setting the balance between the sky and sunlight with film response can give some nice results. I am going to be done with my next chapter later will post some renders...