Sig Sauer P226

For one of the shots I wanted a close up of the Frank's weapon, a Sig Sauer P226. Below is an image I took from the internet for reference.

Alex then modeled a high poly model of the pistol. Below is an occlusion render.

I then began experimenting texturing the gun using maya and mental ray shaders. I realised that simple maya shaders were no good as the gun did not look real or believable. The textures seemed to fake and plain. So I continued using the mia_material with the chrome preset selected. I also experimented with car paint finishes to acquire a more irregular finish.

I then applied a wood texture to the table. I was not happy with the result below as the grain was far too large. So I redesigned the wood texture and increased its resolution by making the overall image larger.
This composite in my opinion turned out rather well. The wood grain is smaller and there is more detail. I added a bump map to the texture too which introduces depth and some nice highlights to the grain as the bump interacts with the area light I placed into the scene to serve as the suspended overhead table lamp. I do however think more work is need on the gun, as I believe the gun looks far too new and I think some weathering such as scratches and knocked off paint would imply that it has been used before.

I do feel however that this render is still not 100%. I believe we can make this render look even better by introducing new improved textures and a new lighting setup. I feel that the textures above all need to be tweaked. The textures appear too clean here and I think that some extra detail to introduce imperfections such as scratches to the metal of the gun and stains to the wood would work really well. Perhaps a few bullets will also enhance the image and add a new visual dimension to the whole composition.