Hrhr, never mind ... the model looks great! (except for some little details already mentioned in this thread) ... so I would hate you if you chose to lower the poly-count at the expense of detail.
I'd guess (and nothing else
) that the poly-count of your model will be almost exactly like in those games that will appear in 2k3. (read something about 2k to 6k polys for d3 models?) No matter how good the current HL Mods are: I still hope there will be a good mod for a new engine ... and they will need models like the one you are working on.