Recreating handheld physical objects, photorealism, high-poly/low-poly, UK

Hello,

I have a not-for-profit project in mind, creating a freely available resource archive. This archive will consist of 3D recreations of a certain type of object, such as could be held in a hand, rotated, opened/closed, etc. I would like the recreation to be as high quality as possible. I am no 3D expert, but I believe that means I want a high-poly version. Later, I might be interested in low-poly versions of the same object with baked in normal maps etc., but let’s go for the high poly version first. I don’t really need the object to be animated, although as I say, it would need to have “hinges” (probably not the right word) so it can be manipulated.

As I say, and as you can probably tell, I’m not at all a 3D expert, so part of what I need is to talk with someone who is, so I can understand what is possible and what isn’t! But someone who is experienced in recreating small models would be ideal.

It would help, but not be essential, if you’re a video game fan. Similarly, it would help, but not be essential, if you’re based in the UK.

I can’t offer any payment I’m afraid, but you will get full credit! Would like creations to be licensed CC BY-SA. I’m very much in favour of open source, hence asking in the Blender community.

More details on request. Or I can post them in the thread if preferred.