I know it's just for texture practice but should you ever model this for a game then don't forget about the functionality: http://www.dday-overlord.com/img/armes/stielhandgranate_24.jpg
Progress on the texturing, using the PBR to practice/learn it to use it for next projects. The flat wall is almost done, need some last tweak. For the other one it's just the beginning.
A shader would be awesome imo, and would save me a hell of alot of work. But thats up to them, im just in it for the modeling practice :P. Small bump and spec.
The thing about using that photo is that the light is from underneath. Shading with the light above seems more practical/versatile unless the game were to have floor-lighting everywhere.
Since you've found this place, start learning/practicing already and see how it goes. If you have the time and financially supporting yourself is not a problem why not give it a try?
Amusingly enough, thanks to GM, practical math such as 7 is greater than 6.2 no longer is true. ;) As far as whether the engine is available, That would be a very amusing lock-out.
Cool Dude? You don't think this could be a practical joke to tag along with the whole "OMG Transformers movie sucks" malarky? It doesn't sound very plausible to me.
Try here for front/side and other angle references of the same person, they're good for modelling practice: http://free-textures.got3d.com/natural/free-character-references/index.html
as with anything else - if you can't see the artefact in game, it's not there :) the issue is that in practice a tangent space normal map can't quite represent 90 degrees from the face normal