HI,

For the poly plane question... its pretty much just my preference, ive use creat poly shape a few times I just find i like the plane better for the way I work and figure out my shapes=).

For the guns you are right as well about just extruding the details. When doing a tutsi like to try and show a few different things while modeling when something can be done in both nurbs or polys.

Either way works more comes down to if in a studio setting, which way your boss or the project calls for. The one thing about nurbs surfaces is you get faster detail most of the time then nurbs because you dont have to make sure you have a close edge so when you do smooth it you will keep the shape nice and clean. As far as the weight issuse even with a smooth on it ,it would not be bad for the model. Weight issuse dont apply to nearly as much as in organics because they have a lot less moving parts and you dont have to worry about skinning them. I still try to keep all the models as low as I can its a good practise to get into=)

Hope that helps

Kurt