>>1013179 (OP)
I personally don't think that the renderer is your problem. modeling-wise; use as many reference images as possible, look up a video about your chosen weapon (forgotten weapons) in order to give you a better look at the weapon, how it functions, and what parts/mechanisms stand out. materials are fine too, i like the dusty look! one thing that helped me alot is the bevel node in blender -- i have no clue if there's something like that in other programs, but you should definetly check it out! it gives the edges of your mesh a sort of raised edge, to make it look like it's bevelled, helped out ALOT in not making my models look so sharp.
in rendering, i believe that focusing on the weapon model is paramount. instead of losing the weapon's finer details in trying to render a huge scene surrounding it, you should just opt for a white background or the like. this way, you can pose and render the coolest parts of your weapon model.
ALSO post work is also important. you could just hit render and forget about it, but i really recommend you add post-processing effects and color adjustments to your images to make them pop! i personally use lightroom, it's nice and easy.
