i m not sure if freelancer ( actually in game ) does showing the ships just as blender does - or milkshape - or any other program. - some programs attempt to "add" stuff on their own to compensate for loss of details - sometimes creating double layers.
for example - making a ship out of rectangles in Metasequia results in a ship with like 1500 polygons.... after imported into milkshape, it becomes 8500 triangles ( note there that one rectangle usually becomes only 2 triangles ) - then HardCMP converts the model again... and who knows what Freelancer does then.
but i think that freelancer does not use the model we see in milkshape before we convert it. - most games convert stuff themselves somewhat so they run better. -
a problem with fixing vanilla ships is that its a lot more work than just modelling. - they consist of components and include some animations, too. - much more than ... from what i know .... any custom made ship is.