Sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread and thank you for replying.
Quote: "what do you use to model"
I am using Ac3d mainly now.
Quote: "ofcourse you could just add the helmet to the mesh as a separate object"
So in Ac3d I would just open the primary model, create my accessary as if it were the only model I was working with, UV Map it texture it. Place it on the primary model where I want it, use the texture coordate editor to tidy everything up, render to texture (tga from ac3d) then open in photoshop (nvidia texture plugin) make sure it looks all tidy touch it up if I need or want to then export as dds?