I did think of replacing the texture, but it is ironically easier to change the object- plus it means I can add more detail (like big holes or wires hanging out). And thanks for the gravity switch idea but I have something like that working now (when the ships health = 0 the 9.8 +z force is taken away).

Your target sounds a bit ambitious for 7 days- the way that I did things was to split up tasks into smaller chunks (like gun scripts, movement, antigravity etc) and bring them together later otherwise you may get multiple bugs all at once which are hard to fix.

But otherwise, go for it!