its always hard to comment on a total conversion...
first off i want to say i have great respect for people making such mod.
Spoiler
things i dont really like (its just my opinion)
- they look smooth and have simple shapes. this can look really great but in this case i got to admit they look a bit like plastic.
- black outlines, in my opinion outlining is great and neccesary for a clear image especially with such small amount of pixels ,but i always try to make the outlines not black but just a darker version of its main colour.
this to give a more realistic image.
- shading things that are within the sprite, it seems you forgotten or something. things that are closer to the light source (above-front in vanilla) tend to cast a shadow on the surface below.
- some details on sloping surfaces dont seem to slope making them look a bit awkward. like some of the damage marks.
- details like small scratches and bolts are missing ,although this is really something which is part of your style.
- you dont need to make the engine parts glow. ingame this is done automaticly.
- you tend to simplify the shading too much. sometimes it lokslike you put just one shading on the whole ship (dark-light-dark with some smoothing) while some parts that are round dont have a individual shading making them look a bit flat and awkward.
i commented on a vanilla perspective ,cause this is the only way i can truly comment on a sprite (i need some reference).
i am pointing things out i would improve to make them look more vanilla.
you can decide to leave a part or even all of the commented points as it is.
good luck with further spriting! 
if anything is unclear just post it!
Thanks for the feedback.
1.) I also think that the Alliance ships look a little too smooth and plastic. I wanted a big contrast between the "used" civilian/ reaver ships and the mint condition Alliance Vessels. I think I achieved that. But I might have to add a little more detail, to make them look less like toys and more like actual vessels. Some smudges and better shadows will hopefully work.
2.) The simple shapes you mention are present in a few of the ships. This mostly comes from the lack of material to work with. Good footage on ships from this series is hard to come by. I did use my imagination on some of them, to add a bit more detail. For example:
Poor footage from the film, not showing a whole lot of detail.
An artist's 3D render. Note that he did not know how to fill up the blanks. Resulting in big smooth surfaces.
I will have to try and add lights, windows and other details to it. Also note that, while it is possible to add more detail and more variation in the shapes, I am trying to add as many ships as I can. For a total conversion I'd rather have a 70 different ships, than only a hand full of highly detailed ones. (Yes! We reached 70!)
Here's another example: (left: detailed Firefly-class / right: vague Orion-class)
I even ended up recycling the Firefly's engines for the Orion.
3.) On the scale I'm working with, tiny details like bolts and rivets would be hard to see, so I didn't bother. You noticed the pre-glowing engines, I see. I made them like that because I tought it looked nice with the added glow from the actual engine FX. You can see this here:
4.) I agree a full 100% that using a darker colour of the ship looks better than just black outlines. Unfortunately I've started working with black outlines because of the way I am rendering the shading and colouring. It is easier this way and since I've started with it, it was hard to turn back. After all I'm trying to be consistant with the art style.
5.) I'm surprised to see you mention the shading within the ship. It is highly consistant and each "plated part" of a ship is individually coloured and shaded, depending on its location. Usually going from "darker on the outer part, to "lighter on the inner part" of the plating. As for the shadows cast on surfaces below, by raised parts? Yes, this is rarely done. Then again, not many parts on these ships are heavily raised. But it may be something that I'll have to look into if I plan on adding more detail to the ships.
I personally feel that I did a good job on the damage markings though. There is one ship that I do agree on as having a bad sloping damage mark:
From your feedback I deduct that I have to work on the Alliance's plastic graphics and add some shadow's below/ behind raised parts. Then again, the lighting comes pretty much from above, and not from an angle, like in vanilla, meaning that raised parts would not cast shadows around them.
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Topic: Spriters judgement thread [non-sprite art allowed] (Read 2223337 times)