This is great information guys - thanks for all your comments and the link to the post on this. Sorry for hijacking your thread somewhat Theomeny but hope this perhaps helps you out also.

Is this actually easier than doing 2d sprites though?

depends on what existing assets are easier to find. Hand painting sprites takes a long time. By comparison, i can generate a rigged textured skinned mesh human with Blender and the Bastioni Labs plugin in about 5 second flat with literally one or two clicks. And that's with free tools. There also seems to be a lot more free/cheap 3D stuff out there than 2D stuff. just google 3D character models vs sprite sheets to get an idea. To give you an idea of the kinds of things you can't find in 3D, I'm working on an airship flight sim. with everything from tanks to troops to factories, bridges, trains, subs, ships, hangars, city blocks, bunkers - all sorts oft target types. and so far the ONLY model i have't found online for free is an authentic WW1 flak gun. Lots of WW2 stuff, but there were really only 2 or 3 true flak guns in ww1. So i'll have to cobble together a few cylinders and planes and boxes.

This is great information guys - thanks for all your comments and the link to the post on this. Sorry for hijacking your thread somewhat Theomeny but hope this perhaps helps you out also.

Hey no problem. I also say thanks for all the information. Since I already started with pixel art sprites and bought aseprite for the art I will probably just stick to it, but I will definitely keep these tips and information in mind for future projects.