Wouldn't be much of a blade if it wasn't hardsurface
I think you should work more on the textures, there isn't any real edge definition and the textures look very "even" over the flat areas. If you could break it up with some edge wear and some more variation to the black front of the weapon I think it would improve the model over all. The orange part looks pretty odd as well, to me it reads as half-melted plastic more so than metal. The placement and direction of the scratches don't make much sense to me either. I would assume that the scratches would go across the weapon instead of along its body.
With some more work on the textures I think this model could turn out real nice
I'd have to agree with the comment above. To add on a little bit, it's sort of a complex or abnormally shaped object, so utilize the wear to tell the viewer how it works, and give some story about it.
The scratches in the middle of the orange part seem very unusual. How did they get there? What about the handle? One would expect to see some wear around where the fingers of it's owner would be positioned, or maybe some grease or even dirt buildup. How about the blade itself? what is it used to cut, and how worn is it? The wear on the blade should tell that story.
The difference in the wear/damage between the bladed half and the handle half is very jarring, as well. It seems like they belong to two different objects.
I had to scroll between both posts on the concept artist artstation ( wich by the way have amazing designs) and the idea that the concepts gave me is that the weapons are made from pieces gather from a junkyard or something that could fit together, but your blade somehow didn't gave much of that feeling. You tried to reduce the amount of polys by merging pieces, but sometimes that doesn't help giving the same effect as the concept. I tried to separate the pieces by colors ( will attach the psd for better view). I would separate the pieces by mesh, even tho some parts can be cut since they are hidden, but the separation need to be there, or maybe just do it for the high poly and than project to the low. Also you need to pay more attention to the bevels going up and down and the details the handle piece doesn't look like the concept, even tho it's look like is just a one part taken from other weapon, not like the blade part It's not an easy model, but if you nail the 3D first I guess it will improve a lot later the texture.
Replies
I think you should work more on the textures, there isn't any real edge definition and the textures look very "even" over the flat areas.
If you could break it up with some edge wear and some more variation to the black front of the weapon I think it would improve the model over all.
The orange part looks pretty odd as well, to me it reads as half-melted plastic more so than metal. The placement and direction of the scratches don't make much sense to me either. I would assume that the scratches would go across the weapon instead of along its body.
With some more work on the textures I think this model could turn out real nice
Also you need to pay more attention to the bevels going up and down and the details the handle piece doesn't look like the concept, even tho it's look like is just a one part taken from other weapon, not like the blade part It's not an easy model, but if you nail the 3D first I guess it will improve a lot later the texture.