Whats missing from the first two ships is a lack of 'tallness'.. I mean all of the great ships in star trek were tall ships, they had angles that made you think of the great sailing ships.

These designs are wide and fat.. massive but not 'grand'.. You can look at the Enterprise launch in the first movie and while the ship isnt the biggest ever, it was definitely grand and tall. One good thing that came out of star Trek V was James Kirk's quotation.

"All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by."

That reminds me of a comment from John Eaves regarding fan designs that one thing they lack is sleekness which is partly the trademark of Federation Ship.

I'm purposefully not going very sleek. I've seen too many sleek designs.

You're doing the USS Vespa arn't you? :p