Nice Josiah, you still working on it? Don't give up!

I used to think like you too, "i dont like copying others exactly"
But the truth is, as much as I love my creative freedom and expression it is actually the best move I could make for learning.
Reason being that I have to persevere through the frustration of pushing and pulling Verts... (will try edges too, thank Jay)
and getting the model as close as possible to the original.
Otherwise I would also not really learn how to do a good
replication from a photo etc...
it also trains your eyes and co-ordination, in a way... or am I wrong?!? It is just a personal project for improving myself,
and man it is freaking testing my patience... LOL - I LOVE IT!

JAY! Thanks bro, will have a look at those MJ Polytools
and thanks for all the info\tips.

Cheers