For a fun project I’m going to model a hallway that is a cross between the industrial looking hallways of Alians and the clean hallways found in the star wars movies. So I’m wondering if I should model a detailed hallway segment then copy that around the floor plan or if I should just box model the entire level then go back and add detail? Right now I have no floor plan - I just make up as I go along. The thing that bothers me about doing the detailed sections then building from there is that I need to boolean union these pieces together and doing that to a detailed section would probably break things. So thats where I’m a little stuck.
I think you should start by modelling the whole thing, then add any elements that will be consistent throughout, like maybe a track running through it, or a pipe, then add detail. I wouldn’t worry about booleans unless it’s absolutely necessary. better to fake it if you can. the less polys the better. also use bump mapping to add detail where you can.