Fretslayer

Renderosity is a great site IMO. Same goes for ShareCG.com I hit both of them daily.

I think your Starship Construction Kit sounds like a really cool idea.

And as for thinking or feeling like you're cheating when you use a mesh built by someone else...again, this is just my opinion but I look at it like this.

Is it cheating when you paint without building your own brush, creating your own paint and weaving your own canvas? I don't think so.

Plus I know a few guys who are fantastic model builders but don't know how to animate or write a story - so for them, when I use their mesh they get to see their hard work put to good use. A good model can inspire an animator or story teller. The first moment I saw Dennis Bailey's 1701-A mesh I knew I had to write a Star Trek story. His mesh was so awesome that it inspired me to write an entire Trek story around it and I think that is pretty darn cool!

It's a win win situation for both the animator and the modeler.

That's just my .2 ...which at todays current market value is pretty much worthless.
LOL!