With summer I decided to take a 3D-Design course and boy am I glad I did!

I've tried getting into 3D-Design before but I found it quite difficult even with the use of tutorials. Now I've started getting into 3D-Design with Blender. After going through the first half of the Beginners section in the Blender Noob to Pro Guide things have become much easier. I was able to make a heart after using a tutorial for making hearts and it turned out decent. Now that I know a little more I decided to do some other stuff. Right now I'm working on Modeling a Katana. I have a long way to go with it, but I'm pleased at the amount of progress I've made with how little time I put into. Another thing I've learned is how hard it is to find good reference pictures; or is that just me?

Here's my heart in a rendered scene:
http://imgcash3.imageshack.us/Himg176/scaled.php?server=176&filename=heartxi5.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=480
Not to fancy, but I was happy that I made something.

Here's the current progress of the Katana I'm working on:
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/6296/katanatestwl2.jpg
Right now it looks pretty plain and boring and the hilt is pretty flat. I'll be changing this later on once I finish making some changes to the blade.

Here's a picture of the Katana's wireframe:
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/5821/katanatestmeshyg5.jpg
It's a little messy in some areas but I'll be going through things later and cleaning it up a little bit.