I don't think there is a small learning curve for modeling apps. It's what ui works best for you. It's a personal thing. You may need to try all the free ones and demos of paid ones .

Free, my favorite is Wings3D. It has a very good forum here and I found very easy to learn. Paid, I have Shade but the learning curve is much higher and the ui could be better. I now use Hexagon2 and it's great. It's like Wings on steroids. So it works well for me.