ZBrush + Topogun solves 99% of my problems, hardsurface? just toss in max or maya for another minute after topo'ing. obviously depends on the specific prop but I love this workflow.
For anything non-modular that doesn't have exact measurements/surfaces, you can pretty much start from scratch in Zbrush, no need to really model by hand in the very beginning for that type of stuff. Of course you will just about always have to build a retopo somewhere else after (essentially you either model before or…