Well you know,I still consider Milkshape a great tool for learning which helped me getting started but I needed much more than what it gave me,it just became obvious after a while that wings3d was the best choice...Plus now that you can implement Yaffray,I can feel a good rendering era comming which will encourage people to modify and ameliorate it.
The material editor is at an early stage but has everything MS3D has plus UVMapping is actually fun with wings.
Still,I would not recommend Wings3D to an extreme debutant but it is nevertheless the only freeware open source program that converts Maya and Max long time users...If you can't afford Mirai(6000$),this is what you will want.
Modeling Tip of the Week:The more details you put on a model,the more you will learn from it!
If I've seen it all before,why's this bus taking me back again?