Picking Little Experiences - first "true" Commision

A week ago I got lucky and was asked to prepare a little project - a turnaround of an object.

The turnaround is for a an MA final project presentation . Not a tricky task, I thought at first. And perhaps it isn't at all. But it turned to be a little chalange only just because I thought it's gonna be easy-peasy :D But problems as allways occured from unexpected places.
This object is Dorje. Dorje means "Diamond" and it is a tibetian ritual object . It symbolizes method and activeness and is a representation of male aspects.
This is how it actually looks like:

It supposedly is made out of brass or copper and looks old as well as isn't ideally simetrical. Also there are plenty variations in the level of detail. But in my case the task is to capture the esence - idea, proportions, material etc.

The first attemps were ... good examples of developmental stage :D Not to satisfactory.. at all..


But today I spent around 4-5 hours concentrating only on texturing and lighting . Also thanks to Alan's advice I got rid of the little problem , black dots on the model.
Ater palying around with settings it all started falling to place. Also the lighting here, I found, is hugely important. I think if it looks even a tyniest bit as a metal object, 30 procent of that is because of the suitable lighting, light colours and intensities. So this is what I have so far :


To me .. it feels like a cold and heavy metal... At least it doesn't look like plastic , like befor...

And here are some wireframes as asked :)

A simple little project indeed, but very good for keeping fresh and developing the set of skills we gained this year. I even have a tight dedline :D (this Wednesday)
I'll post the turnaround video when it's rendered and done.