Another possibility might be to get the Maya 4.5 personal learning edition if you have a fast internet connection (150 Mb!).It`s free but you have to register.I got my on a cd in a magazine.In most other cases i use cinema 4d for modelling (and rendering),but if i convert my cd4 files into 3ds or wavefront-obj (only if the file size is not too huge)i can use them in Vue as well.The texturing i finish in Vue.

http://www.fredivoss.de 

...yippi ah yeah or something like that...