I didn’t start this thread earlier, because I wasn’t sure if I’d finish before the deadline. Here’s my progress so far, the model and armature are both finished, still need to UV unrwap it, and paint the texture. The face count is 842 triangles.
Smooth shaded:
Flat shaded with wireframe:
I could use some constructive criticism, and any suggestions for the texture would be really appreciated 
I’m dissapointed in the lack of criticism between contestants… geez, it’s just for fun.
The shape of the body is too rigid… you need to give him some curves in the side (specifically, there should be a horizontal bulge from the sides of the pelvic bone). I’d like to see a side view - because if you made him rigid on the front you may have made him rigid from the side too. Be sure to give his back some curve, because everyone has that. You modelled the sleeves but not the bottom of the shirt - why? The bottom is going to be more noticable when you draw the texture over it and it’s evident that it is one piece with the pants.
I’m impressed by your tri-count but not so much by what made it that low. With those straight fingers he’s not going to be gripping much, and I wonder how your feet are going to deform properly without toes.
Thanks for the comments shbaz 
I’ll work on the torso to make it more defined, that shouldn’t take long. Making it too defined makes him look like he’s wearing a skin-tight shirt. The bottom of the shirt wasn’t modeled because it’s supposed to be tucked in, (that will be more hopefully obvious once the texture is done.)
The hands and feet were originally going to be more articulated, but I couldn’t get them looking right on my own, and the tutorial I found just modled them as solid pieces.
There are some other little things wrong with the model, but considering it’s only my third character model ever, I’m reasonably satisfied with it. If I took the time to fix every single thing wrong with it, I would never finish a model. I just move on, and apply the lessons I’ve learned to my next modeling attempt
I finished UV mapping the model, now it’s time to make the texture!
I’d still like some suggestions/tips on doing the texture. I’ve made as many character textures before as character models… :-j
[EDIT] Cleared up the post a little, I have such tendency to ramble…
With game textures, you want to use as many pixels as possible with the space you have… so move all of those little things into the holes you have so that you can enlarge something else for that space in the bottom left, or possibly re-arrange the whole thing.
Go into the gimp and use filters/render/patterns/checkerboard. Apply that texture to your model and make sure everything is evenly sized and undistorted.
nice job! very realistic proportionally. nice UV unwrap too.
very nice well done.
This UV arrangement has the least wasted space of any other I tried, but I could scale up the foot and hand, and rearrange the other little pieces… Thanks for pointing it out shbaz
Thanks Modron. Getting the proportions right was the most important thing to me while making this model, so I’m glad to hear I succeded at that
Started painting textures today. I’m working in greyscale and plan to add colour later. Hopefully It’ll be done by the deadline :o
[EDIT] Added a slightly newer, perspective view of the texture in progress.
very good job!
The character is finished in time for the contest 
Here’s the thread in the finished projects forum.
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=255765
Wow dude, it looks good. One thing though… where are the shoes? lol
~Blade
Haha, thank’s blade. I was originally going to model this guy.
I changed the design part way through, but the bare feet stayed in.