I am not going to go into too much detail in this section, since I feel as though I have covered many of the more specific things which I had issues with under fabrication.
Most of the issues which I ran into came about when I got to smoothing. Meshes reacted in many unexpected and undesireable ways when I applied subdivision surface modifiers, smooth shading, or both. I sometimes ended up with collapsed, crinkled edges. Other times I ended up with missing holes in faces. It was a wild ride. I am sure a lot of this can be avoided, and I did learn some tricks, but I feel like there is a lot of depth in this subject alone which I have yet to explore.
It was also difficult just getting used to finding my way around a brand new and rather complicated program. Though I certainly have learned a lot, I still find myself squinting at the screen looking for a particular menu item referenced in a tutorial. I could work with this program for years and still be discovering new things (and hopefully struggling with less old things).
Creating the materials was, at times, quite complex, and I often found myself scratching my head (read: pulling my hair out) as I stared at the screen thinking, "What the...?"
All in all, I am quite proud of the results I achieved. But if I am being honest, I spent *WAY* too many hours on this. I think it is time to unplug the Blender and give it a break for a while.