I think a lot of the difficulty is coming from there being 3 over lapping shape ideas. The functional 2 circles of different sizes meeting at 90 degrees, what's being suggested by the the outer ribs, and the inset detail. I'd suggest model the ends before where it bends and transitions, then separate out the ribs and the…
@TelekenticFrog: Hehehe I had a similar TOTALLY OCD problem with the top of a ceramic kitchen pot. Simple-seeming inset drove me up the wall. I redid it 7-8 times over two days and came to the same conclusion as EQ. Specifically, that if I can identify a real world shape as "inset", then insetting and controlling the…
Insets and extrusions on curved surfaces in subdivision modeling is notoriously hard to do because the support loops will break the equidistance and cause things like pinching. When doing a shape like this you are much better off getting the shape right, and then subdivide and do the inset last. From left to right.…