Here's the thing. Working in 3D inviolves a lot of illusion and cheating. My rule is, if you're not going to see it, don't model it. I use poser figures, but I delete anything on the figure that isn't going to be seen in the image. to save on polys. Slice your image into the three traditional planes. Foreground gets the most detail and the strongest colors, midground requires less detail and less color saturation, background takes the least detail and the colors are the most muted. If your console is up front, you need the actual modeled detail for depth and shadows, in the midground, you might need only a few modeled details, in the background, you can do it all with texturing. You might also check out the Greeble plugin if it's available for your version of MAX. Combined with texturing, greeble could give an interesting console look.

Talent is God's gift to you. Using it is your gift to God.