mike if your using max dont use 3rd party uv mappers ,maxs is one of the best.
it looks like your modeling is comming on well,now you need to stop modeling & learn uv mapping its a real ballache but if you want your models to look good then theres no shortcut.i hate uv mapping ,you spend ages building a model then have to spen nearly as long setting up your uvs.
ok heres a few tips
1/start a new scene in max make a box
2/ highlight your box then right click & make it edit poly
3/ go to modefy panel & add unwrap uvw
4/ in the parameters menu click edit ( this brings up a new window edit uvws )
5/ at the bottom you will see selection modes pick face sub mode.then click on the uv window ,this will cause 1 face to turn red ,zoom out a bit & move this off to one side.do this for all 6 faces.when you highlight a face in your uv window it will also be highlighted in your max veiwport to ,so you can workout whats what.
6/ find your front face then go into edge mode & click the top edge it should turn red ,you will now see that 1 edge has turned blue (this is an ajoining edge )now right click the red edge & chose stich selected your 2 faces should now become 1 ,do this for the other 2 faces so you now have 4 faces conected.then go back to your front face & do the same for the left & right edges
7/ your 6 faces should now all be 1 object so scale it to fit into the blue square in the uv window ,fit it as tightly as you can .
8/ now go to tools & render uv template ,save it & open it in your paint program & paint a basic texture on it .
well thats it a very basic uv tut for max theres a lot more to it but it will get you started,after you have mastered boxs try a cylinder & you will have the basic skills to uv map a more complex model,you just need to look at your model & map it in the best way for the shape.
hope this helps mate
cheers henry
