Yeah, the lighting sucks
I'll post another when I have it finished. In terms of technique I created the backdrop nebulae/stars, rendered the planet in TG on top of it and then used the resulting image as a backplate in modo to render the ship over it - hopefully(!) with a similar lighting approach to make it fit in - unlike attempt 2 where I seemed to think using GI was a good idea in Modo with a Milky Way HDRI for the environment lighting.
Attempt 3 incoming - much better lighting this time hopefully, but I may be succumbing to a little lens flare. Yes, I know. I'm sorry. It's a character failing

Cheers for the feedback, will post next day or so attempt 3...