SORRY FOR NOT POSTING HERE AT THE OUTSET....WILL SAVE SOME TIME:
I have been experimenting and it probably has nothing to do with scaling ! I kept the model as imported and it measures about 15 M. It was half in the ground so inserted about 8M on the y axis to get it out of the ground. I did the render and obtained "AS IMPORTED". It is absolutely better than the scaled model even at the outset. Note that it is at origin except for a small increment in Y. Then I took the model into space by displacing it on Z by a few thousand KM with also a bit of rotation to show the ship a bit better. I obtained "TRANSLATED INTO SPACE AND ROTATION"....... it has started to distort and this, a lot ! More rotation is given and I get even worse, "MORE ROTATION" ! I take the same model back down at origin with the same 8M Y translation, keep the same rotations and obtain "SAME ROTATION BROUGHT DOWN TO ORIGIN". The ship is back to its beautiful self. I wonder whether the shaders have problems when translated by large amounts. The shaders might not be able to follow and dress the model appropriately but even the model seems to have distortion. I will redo the same image as this morning by keeping the model at origin but displace the earth instead.....ans see what happens and how it compares to the one posted earlier !
