my opinion about the art test is that it seems to not respect your time. If they see your portfolio they understand what quality you can hit currently, and if they want to know your typical workflow process they could spend an hour asking you questions about how you would plan to tackle this. But if you will work for X days for no pay rather than them having to pay someone to question you for an hour then it's a no-brainer for them. A bit exploitative if you ask me.
But as for the actual test... it seems doable. It is simple shapes, doesn't seem to be a ton of need for baking normal maps for a high poly mesh. If you use a box modeling approach and build the whole thing in passes so that the entire models resolution increases iteratively I think that may make the best use of time. So for instance the first pass is just basic shapes to block in the biggest volumes. Second pass you refine those a little, and by the tenth pass your are doing tiny things like adding the screwheads as high poly floaters to be baked. But if you only got to the ninth pass, then you would just do those as textures.
Thats just an example idea, you might find that baking flaoters is better use of time compared to textures. But the big idea is just to phase your production so that even if you run short on time you'll still have something that feels finished, even if it is not as detailed as you wished it would be.
the first thing you might do is paint over the reference image to identify how you could construct the minimum viable product, and then you can also define an optimal model as well. Then you can break down each sub task needed to create the MVP and estimate time for it. Once you actually start working you might quickly deviate from this schedule but it can help you at least make sure you are working within the realms of reality before diving into things headfirst.
if you had some concern that they are just using people to make models for free, I dont think its rude to only deliver images of what you created. There is no reason they need an fbx. If they made a fuss about that I'd consider it suspect.
Based off of your portfolio especially the hard surface weapon stuff - skillset is certainly there crunching this down to within or bang on the specified tri count alongside other budget constraints plus there's plenty of time, as well. Personally, really depends upon whether you're feeling comfortable about investing time and effort attempting to begin with so if not already, I'd suggest at least seek further clarification of any relevant issue, prior to going ahead with it.
The fact that they gave you until Jan 12th is pretty nice and relaxed. This prop shouldn't take that long, so it feels like they realized you can't work on it 24/7. 10k tris shouldn't be a worry either; just gotta make things more efficiently. 10k tries for a prop like this isn't super strict. Just gotta figure out what details you can bake down to normals.
Not saying I agree that giving an art test to a potential hire is a good thing. I've just had art tests which were way more strict on both time and poly count.
I think this model looks more complex than it really is; there's a lot of duplicate pieces on this subject, I'd start by identifying those; the nuts, electrical sockets, etc.
That said, it does seem maybe 15% excessive. For reference, my art test with Grinding Gear Games was just the head of a man wearing a kettle hat and chain coif. My art test with Bare Mettle was a full suit of Maximilian plate armour, but that one I got paid for... lol
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Thats just an example idea, you might find that baking flaoters is better use of time compared to textures. But the big idea is just to phase your production so that even if you run short on time you'll still have something that feels finished, even if it is not as detailed as you wished it would be.
That said, it does seem maybe 15% excessive. For reference, my art test with Grinding Gear Games was just the head of a man wearing a kettle hat and chain coif. My art test with Bare Mettle was a full suit of Maximilian plate armour, but that one I got paid for... lol
10k tris and one 4k map is definitely doable imo.