The HIV cell in formation

In the end I went with the ship design for the HIV cell and decided to rely on colour and bump map to improve the alien look.

The colour I went for was a rusty green, and I wanted the whole ship to be dented and scratched.

This was the render I got from adding the colour, but the ship gets lost in that background.

I applied the ship to its first position,which is the formation. I copied the ship five times to show a deadly force. I've used lighting to show depth and show up the area, however, my lighting skills seem to be limited at the moment.

To make sure this part of the animation didn't look boring, I added some movement to the ships.