[ZeroCooL]

hello
  well I went back around here because I'm on vacation and I'm looking for a good hobby
is probably not remember me but I started to wander these forums in August and had to get to school

because the school was very difficult and demanding

so I went back and refresh what little I learned in that short time

thanks to this forum I learned to use FRED
but now I'm the hardest thing

I want to start designing, modeling, painting ships from A to Z

what tools do I need?

that 3D design software do you recommend?

I use google translator
my English is not very good


I have experience modifying tables of ships and weapons, but there are many things still do not understand and later now ask what I want is to find the tools to make a ship

The main idea is to go step by step and go to learning so I have to do to create a ship


thanks!

[Black Wolf]

The first thing to learn is modelling if you want to make brand new ships. New ships need new models, obviously. Assuming you want to stick to free software, my suggestion would be GMax. It's a stripped down version of 3ds max with almost all the capabilities of that program. You'll need to mess around a bit to export to a usable format, but it's still a solid little program. I learnt to model with it before movign onto Max proper.

[Pred the Penguin]

You can take a good look at this thread.
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=70249.0

[esarai]

While GMax is definitely a good tool, in my experience it's difficult to get a hold of, since it's no longer supported by its publisher. 
I would recommend Blender (http://www.blender.org/).  It's a freeware tool that's on par with professional 3D suites.  It does have a confusing GUI, so be careful. 

[Pred the Penguin]

I don't think Blender is too confusing... I think I've gotten a hold of the basics, then again I've only just started. It does have a lot of support on the web, so that's a plus.

[ZeroCooL]

Black Wolf Thanks for the recomendation!
Pred the Penguin Thanks for that link.. its great to my start !
thanks! esarai but i got some experience with Blender but.. disappointment on disappointment it was just could not move with this intricate interface that I'm looking for something more simple at least to learn basic concepts and for me this is a new world and I am a complete novice

acknowledge that blender is a powerful tool and you can do amazing things but I think it is beyond me and I need to learn basic things such as
which is a polygon!

[ZeroCooL]

Hey  people

where I can get a manual for this?

(Gmax)

[ZeroCooL]

i found a tutorial
!!

[esarai]

like I said, Gmax is kinda abandonware, so use it carefully. 

Good luck none the less!