Designing a 2d UI using 3d Art

Hey everyone, sorry about the long delay. I've been horribly busy. The good news is, I've been busy making art! I'm not going to add too much detail in this post, but I'll probably do another live stream soonish.

I'm currently working on an Android app for Mechwarrior Online. It will include a full encyclopedia, mech lab, and hyperpulse radio. Plus, if the dev's make an api, a lobby, community warfare map, and news feeds from the game.

When my friend and I sat down to begin making this app, I decided to build all the art in 3d and then use GIMP to apply shading so that it meshes with the UI of the game. The steps are as follows:

1) Create 3d image
2) Filter out background
3) Trim and resize to a factor of 2
4) Apply filter
5) Apply lines
6) ??
7) Profit!

Here is a gallery of what I've done so far: