Geez... I usually don't bounce around this forum so I'm late to the thread. And what others have said so far is good, here's my take on it:

Wings 3D: This is among the best for making your base mesh. I find it has the fastest workflow because how selections and user-defined operations work. Not to mention it's possible to re-position your view while performing some operations, etc. In some ways it's KISS (not the prettiest looking program), but some of its aspects leave me wanting when trying to do similar stuff other modeling apps. Wings is good enough to "spoil" you if you get used to it.

Sculptris: If you're not worried about edge-flow or topography and simply want to define volume and form, this is where you should look. It parallels sculpting with clay and provides a different approach to modeling than box/edge/vertex modeling. (Z-brush and sculpt mode in Blender also offer the same workflow aspects.)

Blender: This is what I like for UV-mapping (it almost does all the work for you), texturing (not too hard to paint things), rigging and weight mapping (auto weighting is awesome and weight painting is easy enough), scene staging, rendering (Cycles is hard to beat once you get a feel for it - almost feels like cheating if lighting and materials are ok), and compositing. It has a modeler which isn't bad, but you have to get a lot of plugins to do many things other modelers may do on their own. Yet I find it's useful to learn its modeler for adjusting stuff brought in from other programs. The dynamic topology of sculpt mode however is good enough that you might not need to bother with Sculptris. Also it's modifiers and spline tools are good duplicating or arraying basic components made elsewhere. (One might make something like a complex tank tread in Blender, but the basic parts that are put together to make it can be modeled quickly in Wings.)

When it comes down to it, you only need two programs to get started in 3D. Not to mention you don't have to spend any money for them. A Wings 3D and Blender combo is what I'd recommend to any beginner. (Get to know those, and same or similar concepts apply in commercial software.)

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Barbequed Pixels?

Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.