Hand cannon wip

I started this thing two days ago. It began with a basic test thing I was doing and it very rapidly ran out of control. I kept adding stuff to it until it started to look as some sort of weapon. An then I kept adding even more random doodads on it to make it look as complex as possible, to give the illusion that it has some thought behind it (when in fact is a pile of random shit).
On the technical side it's just basic straight forward hard edge modeling, filled with chamfered and connected edges. Also some splines were used (and will be used) for wires and grills.
Now to the irrelevant side, it has 1,206,391 polygons so far, when smoothed, and I expect them to double when I'll finish it.
I plan on using this high poly version to make a normal map for a low poly one, which I'll also texture. I'm determined to finish this, and I sure hope I won't get bored or forget about this, 'cause I really want to see it finished.
I'd like suggestions for more random stuff to add to it that will make it look cool.

How can your comp handle all cute polys?

N-gons! :P XD

it can, I currently have 2GB RAM and I intend to add more.

Ngons are more than allright in hard edge modeling. Why? Because they do no harm. If you have a flat surface, you can have any atrocity of a topology and it will still be flat. Also if you have a curved surface with a few ngons bordered by chamfered edges is also allright. N-gons are bad in organic moeling (but not all the times though...you can hide one or two in areas you won't see) and in low poly modeling (except where you have flat, unsmoothed surfaces).

for example, this is alright, if you really must have that topology there:

How do you make that speaker-like mesh in the second render? You have to make all that detail yourself? Seems like a very tedious job.

I started with a simple spline, divided it, raised every 2 vertices by a little and then duplicated it lots of times. Really easy actually, it took 5 minutes the most.

Uhm those bend parts the holds the circle thing at the top, why are they so strange? Lots of unnecessary lines. :S

It's the aim thingy.

Is that the same geometry? Because the holes on the front plates are round in the upper shot and square in the bottom wireframe.

Otherwise it's a well done piece, though I must say I have developed a bit of an allergy for the way game artists add detail to stuff just because they can. I wouldn't mind if every piece of the weapon had an actual function, but it's mostly stuff that people add to make use of the polies available to them.

Shit, it even has ribbed hoses. Fucking awesome.

hehe, indeed :P. What can I say, you can get really wired while doing this and you lose track of things.
As for the holes thing, yes, it's the same geometry. Only the in the last picture, the wireframe one, it's the model without meshsmooth on. Meshsmooth turns squares into circles.

you surely know that the only real limit for a high poly model is the PC power it is created on, don't you?...

looks like Fusion mortar from Tribes 2, GJ tho :D

Just like you surely know I was making a more general statement, not specificaly adressing TDR's model, right?

I just prefer minimalistic design, then again, maybe that comes from me being envious of people who can make up details like that out of nothing. After all, wether I like it or not, the model does look impressive.

he still need more mechanics to the model, like add a fan or something, fans are always beautiful to look at :D

Fans, yes, I was thinking of those. I added some fans on some turbo-mega-blistering-turbines. I don't like that box they're in though, so it's gonna go. I have other plans for that area now.



Also here's a little detail of that front thing that holds those half-rings: