My Next Project - Dragon Axe

So I have been think the last few days on what I should do for my new project, and recently a friend of mine made a really cool looking axe. That inspired me to make one as well, here is the concept image I've been working on for the last few days:

I still don't know all the details of how its going to to look, but I figured this was a good place to start. My idea is that if this were to be put in a game, this would a one handed axe, so Its not going to be very big and that's why it also has the handle so low. 

The top of the axe is going to be shaped like a dragon and he will have a gem of some sort in its mouth. The part that is wrapping around the pole will be the tail of the dragon and it eventually becomes part of the handle. 

I will make the base model in Maya since I think i can get it done faster that way, and then I will finish it off with Zbrush. Maybe I will jump back to Maya for the UVs, but I'm not sure yet. That's all for now, thanks for reading.