Do you have the same material applied to the entirety of the new combined mesh? In the export settings, obj has "groups on/off", I can't remember that setting in fbx offhand.
blender should work. just export/import it to an obj file and assign the needed bone to the model. export as smd - job done. dont forget the uvs though in the importing exporting.
Looks like your mesh is triangulated. Make sure you have modelled it in quads, and make sure your settings on the OBJ exporter in Max are set to "quads" or "polygons", but not "triangles".
Make sure you both are using the same FBX versions to export and import. There's also COLLADA if OBJ can't do what you need it to, though FBX should work.
problems with exporting materials and edited(rotated) vetex normals within fbx files obj works fine but not enough to export precise vertex info to work well with normal maps
That's one of the main points of 3d texturing is being able to paint across seams, use the 3d painting feature in Photoshop, just import an .obj and your texture and have a go.
I would download the demo of Silo (www.nevercenter.com) and opening it in silo, and export it as an obj. I'm not sure if you can import or export using Maya PLE since it is a evaluation version.
I'm burned out. If there is ANYone out there who is extremly fluent in this, and has the time and patience, I have the file uploaded in OBJ format at http://digitalarts.bgsu.edu/portfolios/jacobcw/romulusobj.obj