For my real life object I chose to model my water bottle. It is a simple model, essentially just a cylinder, however to make it look accurate I had to fillet the edges and add a loop. Filleting the edges was not a problem, however the loop had some difficulties. Extruding the loop in the correct direction took a few tries, and once I got that correct I had to find the right thickness. Overall it was a good exercise in using both surface and curve commands to make something cohesive.
Alex Herman Form Blog 