i think the initial hurdle with max is that you have to create a primitive and convert that to an editable poly object first. whereas in any other app i encountered, you can simply start editing the primitive right away. check out this: http://www.3dluvr.com/ic-art/html/images/sds_modelling.avi this is a really old but…
You can find good and free Max video tutorials (DIVX) on: http://www.3dbuzz.com I can´t remember in which version of Max these videos are recorded (I think it was Version 5), but most functions and methods should work in Max 4 too. To download these videos you just have to create a free acount on 3d Buzz, go to VIDEO…